I Don't Know Why I Got Married
by GeoFount
Summary: [Gou x Mikoshiba] When the Iwatobi Swim team goes to another country for a summer program, Gou thinks this might be the chance they need to earn some money and help her brother be his old self again. What she didn't plan on is waking up one morning after a night of really stupid drunken partying to find herself married to the Captain of the Samezuka swim team.
1. Marriage

**Aka: I don't know what I'm doing with my life anymore. **

**Sort of AUish. Takes place roughly after episode 5 when Rin is still being a butt to everyone but Rei has joined the team and knows how to swim.**

* * *

Water.

Water everywhere, as far as the eye could see.

Sparking, undulating water like a mirror someone had spilled golden paint on. Ribbons of cloud passed by, swirls of white in the golden reflection. The sun was rising.

Gou sighed and pulled the plastic down over the window, leaning back into her seat. She was sick of looking at water. Besides the water, the inside of the cabin was all she had been able to see for the past ten some odd hours.

In the seat next to her Miho Amakata stirred. Her arm moved and her hand flung out, coming dangerously close to smacking Gou in the face. It wouldn't be the first time. Amakata flopped around in her sleep like an overactive three year old. Carefully Gou took the hand and placed it by Amakata's head.

The cabin was very quiet, only the occasional cough, snort, or slight snore ushering from the occupants. The majority of people were sleeping. Even the stewards had retired to some hidden space to catch some shut eye.

In the seat in front of her Gou could see Nagisa's blond head resting on Rei's shoulder and Rei's head atop the smaller boy's. The two were most certainly conked out. Like sleeping Amakata, Nagisa was like an overactive three year old when wake. Gou couldn't recall how many times Rei had scolded him for something, not that it stopped Nagisa. Gou wouldn't have been surprised if Nagisa did it on purpose.

In the seat in front of the two were Makoto and Haru. Gou hadn't seen or heard much from them. A good thing likely. When they had started flying over the ocean, Haru had promptly crawled over Makoto into the aisle and begun disrobing, intent on swimming in the ocean somehow. Who knew what plan of action Haru had planned to take to get _out _of the plane. He likely hadn't thought that far himself.

They would have been kicked off f they weren't already in the air. As it was Makoto had been forced to sedate Haru. Haru didn't do well in closed spaces to begin with and he had never flown before. He had moved around elentlessly, standing up in his seat and getting scolded multiple times by the stewards. Makoto had had no choice but to sedate him. It was for the best for all on board.

If Gou leaned far enough to the side she could see Haru's black hair and his head leaning against the wall. If she stretched herself up far enough she could see Makoto's spiky hair over his seat. Both sleeping.

Across the aisle from her and Amakata sat Coach Goro Sasabe. He had been quiet most of the trip, except for when he had been yelling at Haru when the teen had started flinging off clothes, content to sit in his seat and read swimsuit magazines. Like the others he too was now sleeping, one of the swimsuit magazines splayed across his lap. Gou glared at its glossy surface, wondering how dirty the material was inside.

Sighing again, she leaned back once more. She had gotten very little sleep. Sleeping in this sort of atmosphere was hard for her and it seemed like anytime she did manage to drift into slumber Amakata would plant her hand in Gou's cheek. She had given up after awhile and listened to her IPod but it had run out of juice about two hours ago. Looking out the window had only amused Gou for so long and she was finding herself growing more and more bored. She wished someone was awake for her to talk to and she entertained the idea of waking up Amakata but decided against it. The teacher needed all the sleep she could get. Who knew what sort of chaos they would encounter once they landed.

Landed. Gou hoped that was soon. She had forgotten to bring a watch with her and she hadn't bothered to use her cell phone so she could only guess how long they had been flying for. Probably somewhere close to twelve hours. Six more hours to go. Or was it ten?

Gou sighed for the third time and wondered not for the first time how they ended up doing this.

* * *

_It had been Nagisa's idea. Nagisa was normally the one who thought up such schemes and he had approached this one with the same exuberance he did everything else with._

"_See, this is where it's at." He pointed to a country close to Italy. "Right here."_

_Gou frowned as she looked over the map pinned to the wall. "I don't think that's right. I think it's over here." She pointed to a country close to Brazil._

_Rei snorted, a snort that clearly said 'you're both wrong.' He pointed to a country way in the north by Russia. "It's here."_

"_D-does it really matter where it is? I mean…" Makoto looked over the pamphlet in his lap. "It says here that's been a private entity for the last forty years and it has not had international relations with any country in that time. Not even its neighbors."_

"_Yes, yes, Mako-chan!" Nagisa grabbed the pamphlet out of his lap. "But it also says the country is trying to strengthen its relations and is inviting schools from all over the world to stay there for the summer in a program of friendly competition!"_

_Makoto rubbed his chin. "A whole summer is a long time to be in a different country," he mused. "A different country that hardly anyone knows anything about."_

_That was true. They had tried asking Amakata about it but she had only blinked and said she wasn't a geography teacher. She had never heard of the country. Rei hadn't known anything either but he said he would memorize the formula for it, whatever that had meant._

"_They'll provide lodging and pay for the air flight to and from the country," said Rei, reading over Nagisa's shoulder. "They are also offering free tours of landmarks and important attractions so the students who do participate can learn more about the country." He pushed his glasses further onto his face. "It is…not a bad deal."_

"_They're also offering a 5,000 dollar award to the swimming team that wins their competition!" said Nagisa._

_Makoto's eyebrow twitched. Gou could read it in his eyes. A 5,000 dollar award. That would solve all their financial problems. They had been struggling for funds since starting the club and they had not been able to deliver any accomplishments that might raise their funding as of yet. But 5,000 dollars? They would be set for the whole year if not longer._

"_What does Ama-chan say about this?"_

"_Ama-chan said travelers repose and dream among leaves. I think she was quoting someone but I forgot who." Rei frowned. "I cannot be certain if that was a yes or not."_

"_She's probably waiting to hear what we decide," said Gou. She paused a moment, wondering if she should say it then plowed ahead. "Brother's school is going too."_

"_Rin-chan will be there?!"_

_Gou nodded. "He mentioned it my mother and I last week. The captain of his swim team thought it sounded interesting and would make a good presentation on their school." She didn't follow that with that her brother was hardly around anyway so him leaving for another country for the summer wouldn't change anything. That was best kept to herself she felt._

_She sneaked a peek at where Haru sat in the chair of the desk Makoto was sitting on, but the dark haired teen was looking at some spot on the wall. She couldn't tell what he was thinking at hearing the news that her brother would be there._

_Makoto rubbed the back of his head. "What do you think, Haru?"_

_Haru closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "It sounds like too much effort."_

"_Oh, look at this!" Nagisa waved the pamphlet in the air. "The country boasts they have the largest swimming pool in the world!"_

_A moment later the pamphlet was snatched out of Nagisa's hand. Haru stood with the paper stretched out before him, staring at it as if he had found the fountain of youth. _

_Makoto laughed a little. "Looks like we're going."_

* * *

Amakata had agreed to the trip somehow. Even Goro had when the idea had been pitched to him, saying he needed a vacation. It was nice having two adults with them. Gou liked Amakata quite a bit but the teacher could be a little ditsy at times and it _was _an awful lot for one person to manage. Having Goro there to help would help lighten the burden on the poor literature teacher.

So here they were, on a plane flying across the ocean to some country that not had relations with any other country until now. Once their school had been accepted into the program, Rei had done some research on where they were going. Apparently it had been a dictatorship up until about ten years when the dictator had finally been toppled and a democracy had taken its place. Since then the country had been working on its human rights, infrastructure, and economy, and was trying to open up relations and communications with foreign nations. The program they were now a part of was one of those efforts.

Other clubs from the school had been invited as well, although most were not as long as the swimming program. Gou's friend Hana would be arriving a few weeks from now with the debate team for example, and Gou had heard the art team would be joining them as well. Gou had been happy to hear that. It would be nice to have a female friend there with her for at least part of the summer.

Gou rubbed her hands together, nerves pricking up her arms, and hoped this trip would be worth it.

* * *

When the plane finally did land, Gou nearly ran over two small children to get off. As it was it took nearly an hour. Haru was slow and sluggish, some after effects of the sedative, and Makoto had to nearly carry him and all their bags off the plane. It was no easier in the terminal. Nagisa kept trying to run off to look at stuff and Haru kept asking where the pool was.

_This is like herding cats._

Thankfully Rei had bothered to learn a little of the local language and was able to find out where they needed to go to pick up the rest of their bags. As they stood there waiting for the carousel to come around, Gou looked about herself. There was a mix of different ethnicities everywhere. Schools from all over the world had come to participate in the program. She couldn't tell who was foreigner and who was local.

The orientation for the program would begin very shortly. As Gou understood their flight had been one of the last flights over. Most of the other schools had gotten here yesterday or the day before.

A flash of a black jacket caught her eye and she turned to try and find the golden letters of the Samezuka Academy but the person was around the corner before she could know for sure. Had her brother and his school landed already? She had no way of knowing and her phone wasn't currently working. They would have to get new temporary phones to use.

_Where are you, brother?_

"Gou-chan," Amakata called and Gou turned her attention back to the present, doing her best to push thoughts of her brother out of her mind for now.

* * *

It wasn't until the end of orientation that she finally saw him.

The orientation was long and boring, Gou found herself dozing off in her chair. Amakata and Goro were doing the same next to her, but Nagisa, Rei, and Makoto were paying rapt attention. Gou tried her best to rouse herself, reminding herself that she was the swim team's manager. She had to pay attention. To plan things. Yes. Plan things. That's what she did. Her eyelids drooped as the person at the podium drowned on.

She looked across at Haru, who was awake as the others, but not paying attention to the person speaking in the least. His eyes were on the crowd, scanning the rows of seated students. _He's looking for Rin. _She smiled a little.

Once the presentation was over, they received their housing assignments, and began to make their way to the front to hail down some cabs. They were almost to the front when Ghou finally spotted him standing near the bathrooms with a shorter gray haired boy that she vaguely remembered as Nitori. "Brother!"

At the sound of her voice he looked up. "Gou?" His mouth fell open a bit. "What are you doing here?"

She stopped in front of him, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. For some reason whenever she saw her brother she always felt like a little girl again, happy and carefree. "We're here for the program! We decided to join it!"

"The program?" He blinked then his eyes cleared, and he made a tch sound. "The swimming program. I'm guessing that means Haru is here too then."

Gou stopped rocking. "Uh, y-yes. The whole swim club came."

Rin's mouth was set in a firm line and Gou could see him glaring over her head. Gou glanced behind herself. Haru. Rin was glaring at Haru. Nitori asked, "What's wrong, sempai?"

Rin didn't get a chance to answer as Nagisa suddenly surged in beside Gou, planting himself right into their conversation. "Rin-chan! I'm so glad you're here! We'll be able to swim together again!" He made that weird peace sign he always liked doing. "Let's have fun all summer!"

Rin grit his teeth. It appeared as if he were about to say something nasty but he didn't get a chance to, "Hey, Matsuoka! Let's go!"

Gou recognized that voice. She had heard it several times before. "Captain Mikoshiba…

The Captain of the Samezuka Academy, Mikoshiba. Ghou didn't know his first name. He was dressed in the Samezuka colors and his expression was bored until he caught sight of her. His eyes, that strange gold color, lit up like lampposts. "Ah, yo! Fancy meeting you here!" He smiled at her. "Are you here for the program as well, Gou-kun?"

Gou's smiled faded. Her eyelids lowered. "Please don't use Gou and kun together…"

Rin glanced Haru's way again and made another tch sound. He walked away without comment. Nitori followed him and Gou might have done the same had Mikoshiba not started talking to her. "I can't believe you're part of the program, Gou-kun! Matsuoka never mentioned it before. That's great, how exciting! We can swim together then!"

Gou was hardly listening, trying to look at her brother from around the captain. "Ah, yes."

"Hey, hey, you know later tonight after we get everyone settled in we'll be going to take a look around the town!" His smile was so wide it nearly split his face in two. "You should come with us, Gou-kun."

Now _that _did catch her attention. "What?"

"We'll be checking out the downtown area," Mikoshiba continued. "You should come with us to learn more about the area!"

"A-ah, maybe…"

"Ooooh, checking out the area?!" Nagisa's eyes were bright. "That sounds like a great idea! We should go together!"

"It wouldn't hurt to check out things," Makoto agreed, walking forward to join the conversation. He was the captain of their swim team after all. "We will be here for three months. We should get to know the area."

"Exactly, you should definitely come! All of you are welcome!" Someone called out to Mikoshiba, indicating they were ready, and the Samezuka captain waved in acknowledgement. "Be right there!" Turning back to Gou, Mikoshiba smiled once again. "Meet us at the Jurrian at 8! See you later!" He walked off towards the rest of his swim team with a wave.

"Okay!" said Nagisa, waving back despite the fact Mikoshiba had his back to him and couldn't see it.

"Well, it looks like we'll have some company later on tonight." He rubbed the side of his face. "I'm-I'm sure it won't turn out badly."

Next to him Haru just sighed.

* * *

Eight o'clock rolled around faster than Gou would have liked. After going to their housing assignments, two houses with two bedrooms each (due to being a smaller school and a swim team without any accomplishments they were expected to share bedrooms) and unpacking, Nagisa had immediately coerced the others into going downtown. Haru had been resistant at first, only relenting when Makoto said they could check out the pool that was close to the downtown area.

Amakate and Goro had opted to stay in. Amakata had a lot of luggage to unpack and Goro was exhausted. The two adults advised the teens to behave and not stay out too late, but had not given them any instruction outside of that. Either the two adults trusted them or were too tired to care at the moment.

Ghou tried to protest against going to, but Nagisa pointed out that Samezuka's Captain had invited her and Makoto pointed out that Rin would likely be there. Her brother. She wanted to see him again. It was silly, how much she worried about him. But she did. _His smile got taken away. Now all he is anger and frustration. _But she kept these thoughts to herself. She didn't want to disturb Haru. She didn't know what had happened between the two but she knew Haru felt responsible for it in someway.

The downtown area was busy and packed with people. All of the students participating in the program seemed to have wanted to go out that night despite the jet lag and exhaustion. There were teens everywhere. And lots of swimmers with swimmer bodies. Even fully dressed Gou couldn't help but ogle some of them. It was really unfair that there was so many of them running around together. It was almost like sensory overload.

"Here, here!" Nagisa waved them over. "Here it is!"

The Jurrian. Makoto stood, looking up at it and studying it. His face began to turn a weird shade of purple. "T-this is a bar, Nagisa."

"Yes, yes," said Nagisa as if he had known all along.

Haru pointed out the obvious. "We can't get in then."

"Sure we can." The grin on Nagisa's face was positively devilish. "It's not like back home! The drinking age here is only sixteen!"

There was a moment of stunned silence. "H-how could you possibly know that?" asked Gou.

"Rei-chan told me!"

Rei's face was red as he pushed his glasses further upwards. "I-I didn't tell him because of that," he stuttered.

Suddenly the huge crowds of young people made so much more sense. Most of them had probably found out about the drinking age and had come out to drink themselves silly. _Is that why Amakata-san and Goro let us go out? _Gou's eyebrows lowered. _How irresponsible. _Then another thought crossed her mind. _Is that what Samezuka is planning to do? Is that what _brother _is planning to do?_

"Let's go!" Nagisa was practically dancing his way up the steps, Rei trailing after scolding him about the dangers of running up stairs. It little oddly Haru followed after them willingly. Perhaps he was curious to taste what liquor was like.

Makoto's face was still a strange shade of purple. "I-I guess it couldn't hurt right?" He laughed uncomfortably. "Just a little drink, right?"

Gou asked, "Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

Makoto didn't answer. He just swallowed and began making his way up the stairs like he was walking to his own hanging.

The inside of the bar was crowded. Actually more like packed. There was so many people in there it felt like the temperature had risen ten degrees. Gou didn't think there had been this many people at the airport for God's sake. And so many swimmers. The heat was making them sweat and the sweat was making their clothes stick to their bodies like a second skin. _So many muscles So many biceps and pecs. _Had she died and gone to swimmer heaven? She shook her head. _Remember what you're here for, Gou, _she thought and began to look for her brother, doing her best to ignore the shapely triceps that were abound in the area.

Nagisa made his way to the bar and somehow managed to squeeze in between two people. He began yelling out names of drinks to the bartender, who had either never heard of them before or Nagisa was simply making them up. "Don't ask for things that don't exist!" scolded Rei, then with a noise of bereavement, tried to coax an actual drink from Nagisa that he _did _like.

Haru was studying the board of drinks overhead like it were a math quiz. "I'll have a blue ocean."

Gou made a face. "Are you just ordering that because it has the word ocean in it?"

Haru didn't answer, not that she expected him to. Haru reminded her a lot of a phone that took voice commands. If you gave it a question or command it recognized it would answer instantly, but if you said something to it it didn't recognize you would only get silence. Makoto normally understood these silences from Haru but right now he was too busy staring at the board like it was making him seasick.

"Gou-kun!"

Gou raised her head at the calling of her name. Her _real _name. _Call me Kou, damnit._

In a far corner of the bar Mikoshiba was waving to her. The Samezuka swimmers seemed to have obtained a round couch all to themselves. How long have then been here to obtain that, wondered Gou then decided she'd rather not know. She didn't see her brother among them either. Hopefully he wasn't busy being sick in the bathroom.

"I-I guess we could go over there," said Makoto. He was sweating profusely but Gou didn't think it was because of the heat.

Gou hummed in agreement. She may not see her brother but that didn't mean he wasn't there. Him and Nitori might have stepped outside for a moment. Besides, having a couch to sit on rather than standing among all these packed bodies sounded like a much better alternative.

Once Nagisa, Rei, and Haru had gotten their drinks (Gou noting with amusement that Haru's drink really did look like water), they made their way over to the Samezuka group. Mikoshiba had that smile on again that split his face. "Gou-kun, I'm so glad you could make it!"

"Thanks." She gave him a little smile then turned her attention to trying and locate her brother. She didn't even see Nitori anywhere, and he always seemed be attached to her brother's hip. Where could he have gone? To another bar?

Haru took a sip of his drink. His face immediately squished up like he had eaten something rotten. "You don't have to drink it if you don't want to," said Makoto but Haru only turned away.

"I'm fine." He forced himself to take another sip.

Nagisa, on the other hand, downed his drink in two seconds flat. "Looks go get another one, Rei-chan!" and he dragged the other teen haplessly behind him as he went back to the bar, Rei protesting that he hadn't even tried his.

Gou looked the table in front of her. It was littered with empty glasses and beer bottles. How much had these boys been drinking before they arrived? How much had her brother drank?

A weight settled next to her and she looked up to find Mikoshiba had taken Rei's seat while he was away with Nagisa.

"I'm glad you came, Gou-kun." She noticed faintly that when he was happy his whole face showed it. It wasn't like the smile on the faces of the boys she was used to seeing. Makoto's face didn't light up like this and Nagisa's happiness was more frantic, as if he were going to burst with rainbows and sunshine or something. Mikoshiba's face of happiness was ecstatic but not as charged as Nagisa's. It was a pleasant look. He blinked then and his face smoothed out. "Are you not drinking?"

"Oh, um, I don't know."

"You should get a drink!" Mikoshiba gestured to a bar worker walking by. "What do you want?"

"Oh no, that's fine. I don't have much money."

"Don't worry about that, don't worry about that, I got you covered. What do you want?"

Gou pursed her lips. She had no idea what she wanted or what drinks were like at all. And if he was willing to treat her then hell, she might as well try something. "Something sweet," she said after a moment.

She expected Mikoshiba to tease her but he only grinned and said something to the bar worker. Gou twiddled her fingers.

"Captain Mikoshiba."

He turned to her and she noticed when he was being attentive his whole face showed that as well. You _knew _when Mikoshibe was giving you his full attention.

"Is my brother here?"

"Matsuoka?" He tilted his head. "No he decided to stay in and get some sleep. Nitori stayed with him."

"O-oh." She lowered her eyes. So he hadn't come out. Was it because he knew the Iwantobi boys would be here with his team? Did he want to avoid them that much?

"Hey, don't look so glum." Mikoshiba nudged her in the ribs. "Your brother was only tired. I don't think he flies well. He complained about motion sickness during the flight. You know your brother, when he sets his mind to something he does it no matter what, and that includes sleeping. Besides, you came out to have fun, didn't you? Don't let him spoil that just because he isn't here. It's our first night in a new country! Let's go crazy!"

Gou frowned, not feeling convinced. She looked at the others. Haru was trying to get Makoto to take a sip of his drink. Makoto was tentatively trying to, looking like he was already sick even though he hadn't had a single thing to drink yet. Across the couch from her Nagisa was laughing uproariously and leaning all over Rei. How much had he had to drink? He was smaller than the other boys so he would get drunk faster. He looked like he was drunk already. Rei was yelling at him and there were wet stains on his jacket from Nagisa spilling his drink on him or causing Rei to spill his own drink on himself.

Gou stifled a laugh. Okay. They had come out to have a good time. Everyone else was, even Haru. She shouldn't let thoughts of her brother spoil that. Mikoshiba was right.

She took a deep breath and smiled. "Okay."

Mikoshiba smiled back. When he smiled his whole face showed it.

* * *

Gou didn't remember how many drinks she had. She remembered that what Mikoshiba ordered for her was red and tasted great, and asking for it when he asked her if she wanted anything else. She remembered toasting with Mikoshiba and both of them laughing. She remembered Haru at one point taking off his clothes and trying to get into the punch bowl, and Makoto yelling and grabbing him, and Nagisa laughing and encouraging Haru and Rei leaning over barfing into a corner. He didn't hold his liquor well apparently.

And Mikoshiba's smile. She remembered that. His smile which lights up his entire face, and how he transitioned so easily from happiness into captain mode, like when he is saying something to one of his swim members who have asked him something. _I like that_, she thinks. His face, when it becomes so serious. The deep tone of his voice. But his laugh.

_How does someone have so many different sides of him all in one person?_

A red drink in her hand. Mikoshiba's arm is extended behind her, not on purpose, just there for him to be comfortable and when she falls back she falls back onto it. Mikoshiba turns to her for a brief second but one of his teammates is talking and Mikoshiba turns back to him, laughing. His arm falls around her shoulders but she doesn't care. She's against his side and he's warm, like sand at the beach. Like a fire. Warm like home. She closes her eyes.

He smells like sun and wind.

* * *

When she opened her eyes, they felt gritty and dry, almost like there was a deep pulsing behind them. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision, and groaned. Her head felt full of cotton and her throat was so dry. She raised a hand to her forehead to try and quell the pounding.

Good God she felt horrible. She couldn't recall the last time she had felt this bad. Had she _ever _felt this bad? _This was a terrible idea. I'm going to kill Nagisa._

Blinking she tried to locate a clock somewhere. What time was it? It had to be early morning. It _felt_ like morning, that coldness in the air before the sun has had a chance to melt it away. Why was she up so early?

Then something more important occurred to her. _Where am I?_

She didn't recognize the room she was in. It was most definitely not her room back at home and it wasn't the room Amakata and her had decided to share in their lodging.

A weight moved on her hip and Gou looked down. An arm. An arm was draped across her waist. A bare arm that was long and muscular with olive colored skin. Slowly Gou's eyes traced their way up the arm to the body that was attached to it.

_Oh my. God._

Mikoshiba. Mikoshiba was lying beside her. On his stomach with his face buried in some pillows, utterly passed out. He was shirtless and only wore a pair of what looked like boxers.

_Oh my God, oh my God._

Why was she in Mikoshiba's _bed_?!

Very slowly and very carefully Gou lifted his arm from her person. He stirred a little, muffling into the pillow, and turned over. Gou took advantage of the opportunity to slide out from the bed.

Thankfully there was no one else in the room. Mikoshiba's bed was the only one. He had a room to himself. The perks of being a captain of a strong swim team.

She pattered herself down quickly. She was fully clothed. Good, that was good. She hadn't done anything that stupid. She didn't feel any pain either down…down there. Surely she would if _that _had happened. Mikoshiba was a big guy after all, he was taller than Makoto for God's sake.

"_You know what they say about tall men, right?" Rin's voice from the past, teasing her when they were kids._

_Gou covering her ears. "Stop it, I don't want to hear it!"_

"_Big shoes, haha!" Rin laughs. "What were you thinking about, huh? You pervert!"_

Gou's face was red hot. Mikoshiba was nearly naked. Had she seen it last night? _Why am I thinking about something like that right now?_

She encountered no one on her way to the door and she found her shoes flopped down as if she had thrown them there. She slipped them on. Very quietly she opened the door, pausing a moment to make sure Mikoshiba had not awoken. She heard nothing and she closed the door, beating a very hasty retreat down the street.

* * *

She was lucky. Her lodge was not far and she found it easily enough. By the time she got there, her stomach was queasy and her whole body shaking, her head booming. Running in the condition she was in was not very wise, not that she could help it.

She leaned on the fence post a moment to regain her bearings. God why had she drunk so much? _How _much had she drunk? She didn't know but it was obviously too much. _I am never doing that again._

She was also lucky that no one in the lodge was awake yet. She slipped into the room she shared with Amakata on quiet feet. Amakata didn't stir when she entered and Gou slid open her drawer. Amakata turned over and Gou froze like a deer in headlights. But Amakata was simply doing her usual sleeping routine, tossing and turning like a child. Gou quickly changed into pajamas and slipped into the bed.

Gou breathed a sigh of relief.

She was fine. No one had seen her come home. If she was careful no one would have hopefully noticed she been gone all night. She closed her eyes, intent on getting some sleep, and forgetting all about what she had woken up to.

* * *

When the alarm woke up her several hours later she felt a little better. Not much better but a little. Amakate slept through the alarm somehow, and Gou got up and left the room before she had a chance to. She didn't want Amakata asking her questions. Not yet anyway.

She took a long shower, letting the warm water course over and relax her. She examined her body once again but found nothing unusual. _I didn't have sex with him_, and this time she was convinced. Had she done anything with him? Her clothes had not shown any signs of distress and she hadn't felt…wet in any places. The blushing racing down her neck was fire. Had she kissed him? Now that she didn't know. There was no way of telling.

She certainly hoped not. She didn't want to think her first kiss had been given away in a drunken fit which she couldn't remember.

_And with Mikoshiba…_

Quickly she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. She wouldn't think about it anymore. She would put it out of her mind and not think about it anymore.

She felt better after the shower and after getting dressed she went over to check on the boys.

To say they were worse than her was an understatement. Nagisa was lying on the floor, his arm covering his eyes, moaning like death warmed over. Haru and Rei were at least upright seated on the floor at the table. Haru's head was cradled in his arms atop it and Rei was pinching the bridge of his nose, looking as if he were going to vomit any second. Makoto was the only one who wasn't hung over, but he still looked tired and worn thin. Poor guy had probably had to baby sit the three the whole night.

"Well, you guys certainly did a number on yourselves," Goro observed. The three only moaned in response, Makoto chuckling in that uncomfortable way of his when he doesn't know how to handle something. Goro sighed loudly. "Ah, well, I guess it's to be expected. Kids will be kids. I'll tell Akamata you three ate some bad shellfish if she asks about it."

"She's still asleep," said Gou.

"Yeah," said Goro. "She was up late last night unpacking."

That made sense. Akamata had brought enough bags with her to kill a small elephant. It looked like she had packed for a year trip instead of a three month one.

"Get yourselves ready," said Goro. "We leave in an hour for a joint practice. It's mandatory so you have to go." He received no response. "Anyone want breakfast?"

"Ugh," said Nagisa and Rei covered his bulging mouth with his hand. Makoto had begun to raise his hand but lowered it with another awkward chuckle. Poor guy didn't want to make the others sick by watching him eat.

Goro left the room, leaving the teens to their post drinking misery. When he had left, Gou turned her attention on Makoto. "What time did you guys leave the bar last night?"

She stopped herself from asking the question she really wanted to. _Why had they left her there? _She couldn't blame them, she wasn't their responsibility, but a part of her was still mad that they had left her behind. If they hadn't left her she wouldn't have woken up in a bed with Mikoshiba…

Mikoshiba, his bed, and how he smelled like sun and wind. Her forehead crinkled. She remembered thinking that when she had been leaning against him. At least she remembered something about last night.

She wondered what the other boys smelled like. Makoto, she imagined, would smell like spring in a field. Nagisa would smell like sunshine. Rei would smell like an office, sharp and clean. And Haru…he probably smelled like mackerel.

_Any why the heck am I thinking about this?_

"I don't know," Makoto was saying. He looked a little desperate. We had to leave because Rei kept vomiting."

Rei made a strange sound, like a cat being stepped on. Nagisa waved a hand weakly in the air, a ghost of laughter passing his lips. "Rei-chan is terrible at holding his liquor."

"Shut up," said Rei from behind his hand. "This is all your fault. You kept giving me drinks and insisting I drink them."

Nagisa let out a pained laugh. "You still drank them though."

Rei was silent. Apparently he didn't have an argument for that.

"I tried to get you to come but you wouldn't move," Makoto went on. "You kept saying you were fine and having fun and being crazy for once and that you wanted to stay. Mikoshiba insisted he had you."

_Oh he had me alright!_

"Then Haru took off running down the street trying to find that pool…" Makoto trailed off, looking at the dark haired teen. "I had to chase him for almost two miles before I caught him."

Haru shifted on the table. "Shut up." He dragged the words out like a moan.

"Oh well," said Gou softly. So they had tried to get her to come with them and she had insisted on staying. It would have been better if Makoto had forced her to come but Makoto wasn't the type to force people into anything and he was inexperienced with handling drunken teens anyway. Everything considered he had a done a pretty fine job of getting the other three boys back to the lodge without major incident. He had had his hands full dealing with their nonsense.

Goro poked his head in, telling them it was time to go. The five rose with a series of moans and groans and trudged their way out of the lodge.

* * *

The practice was indeed a mess. Nearly everyone who was there was hung over. Their times were slow and horrible. Some weren't even capable of doing a full lap and a few times Gou glanced up to see one of the poor swimmers running towards the bathroom, his hand covering his mouth.

"This is one fine way to make an impression," Goro grumbled.

Gou made sure not to voice her laughter aloud but in her head she was amused. What did the country expect making the legal drinking age sixteen and then inviting a bunch of highschoolers to visit? That was asking for trouble.

She was relieved when she didn't see the Samezuka Academy at the practice. If her luck held they wouldn't have practice today and she wouldn't have to see them. She didn't _want _to see Mikoshiba. Not after last night. Her face turned red just thinking about it. Did he remember anything? Would he even know she had been at his house when he woke up this morning? She hoped not, she hadn't left any evidence of her time there and if he had been as drunk as she had been he wouldn't remember either. That would be the best.

Gou looked at her stopwatch. She didn't know how long this practice was supposed to last and time felt like it was crawling by. She really wanted to go back to the lodge and get some more sleep. After a sleepless night on the plane and…last night she hadn't gotten much rest. Plus the stupid jet lag.

The door opened behind her, another swim team piling in for practice. Gou blanched. Samezuka academy.

_Oh god. _

Her luck had officially ran out.

Her brother walked in, looking as scowly as ever but well rested and alert unlike his comrades, who boasted dark circles under their eyes and sluggish limbs. Gou barely paid him any mind for once, watching instead for someone else, hoping he wouldn't make an appearance. But he did.

He looked worse for wear, as tired as his comrades and a little queasy. Even his hair looked tired, not standing up as straight as usual. He wore a jacket over his swimsuit. That attire was a little unusual considering the weather. He gave out a few orders, gesturing to his swim team, then he looked up and Gou knew he had saw her.

Quickly she turned away. Her cheeks were already flushing with heat. She prayed Goro did not turn around and notice, and that Mikoshiba would not approach her, that he would pretend she didn't exist. Goro didn't. He was yelling something at Nagisa, something about not falling asleep in the water. Goro didn't but Mikoshiba did. She heard his footsteps and out of the corner of her eye she saw his tall frame approach her.

He stopped beside her. "Yo."

His voice lacked the usual enthusiasm she heard in it. Tentatively she looked up at him from beneath her hair. "G-good morning."

Mikoshiba rubbed the back of his neck. His expression was almost pensive. "Do you have a moment?" he asked after a moment. "I need to talk to you."

Gou's face grew hotter. She wanted to tell him no. She didn't want to talk about last night. But if she said no that would only be more suspicious. "O-okay."

They moved away to the side, away from everyone else. Gou was glad to see Rin doing some laps. She didn't want him to become curious or suspicious and come charging over.

Mikoshiba glanced around as if to make sure nobody was nearby or watching them. He cleared his throat. "I was hoping you could explain something for me."

Gou blinked.

He reached inside his jacket. From within he pulled out a rolled up piece of paper. He handed it to Gou. Confused, she unraveled it, not knowing what to expect or think. She stared at the paper for a long minute. And then another long moment.

"Is-is this some sort of joke?"

She looked up but Mikoshiba's face was a blank mask. He did not respond.

Across the paper it read: **Certificate of Marriage**

This certifies the rites of matrimony. On this day of the 5th of May in the year 2013, Seijuro Mikoshiba and Gou Matsuoka were united in marriage.


	2. Divorce

**Yeahhhh. This fic will be the death of me.**

* * *

If it was a joke it was a terrible one.

Gou raced out of the building. The marriage certificate was clutched in her hand. Vaguely she remembered asking Mikoshiba if she could take it and Mikoshiba saying she could.

She couldn't believe it. Was she really so stupid that she had gotten married while drunk? She had heard stories about people doing that and had always laughed about it. The stupid mistakes people made when inebriated. Now she was one of those people. _She had gotten married! _

_It has to be a joke. A really bad one. It has to be fake. It's a fake._

She unfurled the certificate and studied it again. Well, it certainly looked official. It even had the county's seal in gold on the top right corner. And their names written in scrawling letters.

Seijuro Mikashiba.

_I didn't even know that was his first name._

She rolled the certificate back up, panting. What should she do? This was a mistake, a terrible, terrible mistake that Gou had no idea how to deal with. She didn't know anything about marriage. She couldn't be married!

_An adult. An adult would know what do. I need an adult._

Goro was still inside with the boys. Which left only one other alternative.

Swallowing down her panic, Gou took off running towards the lodge.

* * *

A bit later Gou sat on the floor of the lodge. She had her eyes closed, hands held stiffly in her lap. To her right was Amakata and rolled out on the table in front of them the marriage certificate sat like a student's bad report card.

"W-well." Amakata gave a little cough. She was significantly calmer then she had been when Gou had first burst in the door with the…news. She was at least not exclaiming shrilly anymore. The teacher had been surprised to see Gou home then, once Gou showed her the paper she had in her hand, Amakata had descended into a mini freak out. Gou had barely been able to discern much of what Amakata had been saying during that. The few words she had been to make out were 'what', 'marriage', 'how', 'you' and 'why'. Gou hadn't known if they had been questions or not either. Regardless she wouldn't have been able to answer them anyway.

Amakata cleared her throat again. "I…I know kids like to do reckless and crazy things sometimes but this seems a little uhhh…extreme."

Gou raised her eyes to the ceiling. She grit her teeth.

"I hadn't realize you wanted to get married, Gou-chan."

Gou's head thunked onto the table. _Of all the things… _"I didn't want to get married!"

"Y-you didn't? Then why did you?"

"I don't know why I got married!" Gou raised her head off the table, rubbing her reddened forehead. "I barely even know him. I was drunk. I literally don't remember _any_ of it, I have no idea why I did it. It was a stupid, horrible, _terrible_ mistake."

"O-h my. Marriage is never a mistake, Gou-chan. Marriage is a beautiful, wonderful thing. As the famous French playwright Moliere said, 'Love is often the fruit of marriage'."

That didn't make any sense. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? Wasn't marriage supposed to be the fruit of love? You were supposed to be in love before you got married, right? Gou never understood Amakata's quotes.

"I just wish you had waited for a bit longer than a day to decide to go through with it," said Amakata. Suddenly she buried her face in her hands and shook her head rapidly back and forth. "Oh this is going to look so bad on me as a teacher! The principal will never trust me to take students anywhere anymore!" she wailed. "I was supposed to be in charge of you! They're going to think I'm so irresponsible! I…I could even get f-fired."

As if Gou didn't feel bad enough. Now Amakata's job may be on the line as well. Should she cry? Gou kind of felt like she wanted to. "I'm sorry, Ama-chan." She wringer her hands. "I never meant to cause so much trouble. We were just trying to have a good time-" She grimaced at her word choice. "I never intended for this to happen," she said instead.

"No, no, I know Gou-chan. You're a good girl. I know you wouldn't do something like this on purpppp- while sober. Ahem. Just kids being kids." Her laugh was stiff. She took a deep breath. "Okay, let's just…let's just focus on the task at hand. Worrying about my job is too premature at this point." Another stiff laugh and another deep breath. She leaned forward to look at the marriage certificate. "Who is Seijuro Mikoshiba anyway?"

"The Samezuka Academy's swim captain. He's in charge of my brother-" Gou stopped herself, pupils dilating. _Oh no. Oh no. _How could she not have thought of that? Did her brother know about this? No, no he couldn't have. If he did Mikoshiba would likely be dead and maybe herself as well. He certainly wouldn't be acting as calm as he had when she saw him at the pool anyway.

_Brother _cannot_ know about this. If he were to find out…_

Gou found she really didn't want to think too much about that. He may act distant towards her and rarely listen to her but she knew for a fact he wouldn't be very happy about this…debacle. Offering congratulations would be the last thing on his mind.

"Oh is he the tall boy with the spiky red hair?" asked Amakata. "He's cute."

Gou made to say something then stopped. Had Amakata just said what she thought she had? "Uhhh…"

Amakata realized it too. "I-I didn't mean it like that." She waved her hand, a light dusting of red coloring her cheeks. "I meant for someone of _your _age he's cute."

"I…I suppose." This was the last conversation Gou wanted to be having. Cute or not, it didn't make the fact she was married to him any better. She hadn't even known his first name. "Ama-chan I don't know what to do. I don't know how to fix this! I was hoping you might since you're older."

"Oh I'm not that much older, Gou-chan," Amakata laughed then became worried. "Why do I look like I am?"

_Don't focus on that, _Gou wanted to yell at her. Gou buried her face in her hands. If Amakata wasn't able to help her, what should she do? She could go to Goro but she felt reluctant to. He was an adult male and broaching this subject with him would be less than comfortable. Plus he'd probably freak out worse than Amakata had.

She couldn't go to her brother, that was a definite no-no. All that left was the Iwantobi boys. _I guess that wouldn't be so bad. Rei is smart, I'm sure he'd be able to think of something and Makoto would certainly try._

"Gou-chan," said Amakata suddenly. She was frowning down at the certificate. "You don't happen to know what the age of consent in this country is, do you?"

Come to think of it Gou didn't. "No. I know the drinking age is sixteen." She rolled her eyes in irritation at herself. "Why?"

"Well." Amakata picked up the certificate. "If the age of legal consent in this country is higher than sixteen, you can't be legally married without a parent's consent."

Gou's eyes widened. Amakata was right. How had Gou not thought about that before? "In which case if I don't have a parent's consent…"

"Then this contract is null and void."

Gou's shriek would have frightened cats had there been any in the vicinity. "Ama-chan, you're the best!" She wrapped her arms around the teacher's neck, practically bouncing against the older woman. "I knew I could count on you!"

"W-well." Amakata patted her arm. "These are just the things I can do when I set my mind to it I suppose." She leaned back to look at Gou seriously. "Now, Gou-chan, this only applies if the legal age for marriage is older than sixteen. We still need to find that out, don't forget."

Gou nodded. "Right, right. I'm sure it is though. There's no way they could let people that young get married!" She laughed. "But who would know something like that? I don't want to ask a local, they probably think we're strange already…" The answer came to her a second later and she smiled. "I know just the person."

"Who, Gou-chan?"

Gou winked at her. "The smartest person I know."

* * *

Rei peered at the marriage certificate like it were a treasure map or a 'Where's Waldo' picture. He held it up to the light then lowered it back down to face level, the sunlight reflecting off his glasses. His gaze and face was so intense that Gou found herself leaning forward in her seat, balancing on the edge with breath held.

Amakata had managed to pry Rei away from the other boys and bring him to their lodge. How she had managed to persuade Nagisa not to come Gou could only assume was because the blond still felt pretty terrible. He had drunk more than anyone. He probably didn't have the energy to argue with anyone.

All things considered, Rei had taken the news of the marriage in stride. He had simply stood there and once Gou had handed him the certificate he had sat down in a chair without a word to inspect it. Nearly ten minutes had now passed since Rei had first started looking at it.

Gou was getting impatient but she forced herself to wait. Rei would know what to do. Gou was sure of it. He was the smartest person she knew and the only one who had bothered to learn anything about their host country. If anyone might have an inkling about their laws, it was him.

Rei finally lowered the certificate. He coughed lightly into his hand. "I am quite impressed." He adjusted his glasses. "You weren't even in this country for twenty-four hours and you managed to do something like this."

Gou's mouth fell open. She slammed her hands down on the arms of her chair. "T-that wasn't what I was doing! I didn't mean to get married!"

"How does one _accidentally_ get married?"

"I was drunk! I didn't want to get married!"

"If you didn't want to get married then why did you?"

"I don't know! I was drunk, like I said!" She clutched her aching head. "I don't know why I got married!"

"N-now, Gou-chan." Amakata tried to pat her back soothingly. "Don't worry. It'll be fine."

Gou moaned into her own lap.

"Rei," asked Amakata, turning her attention to him, "do you happen to know the age of legal consent in this country?"

Rei's mouth was in a line and Gou could already tell he had guessed what Amakata and she were hoping for. _Here comes the disappointment…_

"The legal consent for marriage is the same age as the age for drinking."

And there it was. "Ugh." Gou buried her face into her lap once more. This was awful. So awful. How had she gotten herself into this situation? _Alcohol. It was the alcohol. I am _never, ever _touching that stuff again._ What was she supposed to do now?

"Wa-wait." Gou raised her head, a flicker of hope alighting in her heart. "What about a divorce?" Her eyes widened. "Or an annulment? We can do that right? I mean it hasn't even been twenty four hours. There shouldn't be any reason why we can't get it annulled."

"Oh Gou-chan that's a great idea!" cried Amakata. "We'll just get it annulled. What a great idea! That's the perfect solution!"

Rei's mouth was still in that line. He made a weird sound in his throat and adjusted his collar, as if it were choking him. "The…the human rights in this country are still being developed, remember," he said. "It isn't until recently that they've really improved, however some aspects have…lagged behind."

Gou stared at him with baited breath. "What are you trying to say, Rei? What does that mean?"

"What I am trying to say that divorce and annulment are currently…illegal in this county."

Gou's heart sank.

"And since you got married in this country," Rei continued, the words like nails in a coffin, "you'll have to abide by their laws while on their soil."

Gou really did cry after that.

* * *

"Now, now, Gou-chan." Amakata wiped the cool towel against Gou's cheeks, clearing away her tears. "There's no reason to cry. It isn't the end of the world."

"No, it's just the end of my world!" Gou wailed. She threw her head back. "My life is ruined!"

"I thought it was normally the husband who says that after getting married," muttered Rei and Amakata threw him a dark look that said he wasn't helping.

"Marriage isn't so bad, Gou-chan," Amakata tried to soothe her. "Lots of people are married to people they don't particularly care to be wed to."

Gou wailed even louder and it was Rei's turn to shoot Amakata a dark look. Sighing, Rei patted Gou's shoulder. "Calm down, Gou. I didn't say you could _never _get divorced. That would be lunacy!" He laughed but nobody laughed with him. "You just can't get divorced while we're in this country is all."

Gou sniffed into the handkerchief Amakata had given her. "So?"

Rei sighed again, as if he were trying to explain physics to a child. "We're only going to be in this country for the next three months," he reminded her. "But after that we'll be returning to Japan, where divorce is legal. Once we return you can get a divorce then."

Gou stilled. He was right. Rei was right. "That's right." She lifted her face, eyes bright. "That's right. Rei, that's right! That means…That means I- I just have to get through these next three months! I just have to get through these next three months and then I can get a divorce once we get back home! I just have to get through these next three months!" She grabbed Rei's arm. "Rei, you're a genius!"

"W-well, I don't…about that." He pushed his glasses further onto his nose, trying his best to hide the grin that was spreading under his hand. "I suppose I am though."

"The next three months." Gou started pacing the room. "That shouldn't be that hard. We'll just pretend like nothing happened! Three months isn't that long. I can do this! Once we get back home we'll just have to do the divorce quietly so no one back home finds out about it. My mom would _kill _me!"

"Three months," said Rei. "Three months is still a long time to keep something like this a secret. What do you plan to tell the others?"

She paused, considering that. "I…I guess I'll have to tell them."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Gou-chan?" asked Amakata but underneath her words Gou could hear what she was really trying to say. _They're _boys. _Are you sure you want to tell them?_

Gou nodded. She knew if she didn't all that would happen is she would make up a lie and then forget it later and end up contradicting herself, and those three were sharp enough they would catch it rather quickly. They would know something was up. In this case she felt honesty would be the best policy and save her some trouble.

She trusted them to keep her secret besides. Makoto definitely would. Nagisa was loud and energetic but he was the type who would die before ever hurting a friend of his. Haru would likely not even care and not say anything. Either way they would understand the situation and honor her wishes.

"And Coach Sasabe," Gou began but Amakata cut her off.

"I think it would be best if you left him to me." She smiled awkwardly. "He'll be tempted to yell less if he hears it from me."

"O-oh, okay. That sounds good, I guess. Then that just leaves…Mikoshiba." Gou grimaced. The thought of seeing him again made her feel extremely embarrassed and nervous. Even just picturing his face in her mind made her antsy, but she would have to see him again. She would have to tell him what was going on, there was no avoiding that. He was the other half of this messed up equation after all. "I-I'll talk to him later. He'll want to know what's going on."

She would have to meet him elsewhere. She couldn't go to his place and she couldn't bring him here either. That would be too personal. She would meet him somewhere that was a little more public, but somewhere Rin wouldn't be. If Rin stumbled upon them…Well, it wasn't worth thinking about.

As if reading her thoughts, Rei asked, "What about your brother? Aren't you going to tell him?"

Quickly Gou shook her head. "Ohhh no. He _can't _know. _Can't. _He must _never _find out. _Ever. Ev-er. _You know how my brother is. If he finds out he'll lose it."

Rei's mouth twisted. "He's your family, Gou-chan. You should tell him."

Gou shook her head again. "No. Brother must never find out. We must never tell him. He can't know. You can't tell him." She seized Rei's sleeve in her hand. "Promise me you won't tell him, Rei. Promise me. Please! You have to promise."

Rei leaned as far away from her as he could, his face in a grimace. "I find that's awfully unfair to your brother, in my opinion," he stated, "but I'll do as you ask." He delicately plucked his sleeve out of Gou's hands and smoothed down the abused fabric. "If we are finished here I would like to get some food. I haven't eaten anything since last night's escapade. If my calculations are correct the alcohol will have dissipated from my system enough that I shall be able to eat without regurgitating it back up."

Gou twitched nervously. "You didn't say I promise about not telling my brother."

He sighed. "I promise I won't tell your brother." He turned and made his way towards the door. "But you should."

* * *

_This has to be the worst house meeting in the history of mankind._

Gou stood with her back to the wall, arms crossed, eyes closed, and eyebrow twitching just a little bit. Next to her stood Amakata, and in front of her seated on the floor were the other members of the Iwantobi Swim Club. The three boys were noticeably confused by this strange meeting that had been called, muttering questionably to each other. Nagisa was looking around a lot too.

_Probably for Rei._ The blue haired teen was currently running a…errand for Gou. Rei had been none too happy about it but Amakata had coerced the poor boy to do it while they explained the situation to the others. At least Amakata had promised to pay for his food when he returned.

"S-so," Amakata began. She cleared her throat lightly, worrying her hands in front of her chest. "We have had a…delicate situation arise suddenly." She laughed as if trying to make light of the situation. The boys simply blinked at her and Gou ground her teeth painfully. "A-anyway. Ummm you see…" She fell silent then tried again. "Sometimes when people are young they decide to do things that aren't necessarily smart or…or wise. As Thomas Edison said, maturity is often more absurd than youth and very frequently is most unjust to youth! Ha-ha! Ummm."

Gou turned her head to glare down the hallway. The boys looked even more confused.

"Sometimes these unwise decisions involve…legal matters that…aren't…easy to get out of. Especially when alcohol is involved some people…make rash decisions."

Gou was scowling and the boys turned to look at each other, dumbfounded. "Did someone get arrested?" Haru asked finally.

"I tried to stop Haru from taking his clothes off," muttered Makoto. "I knew one day he was going to get arrested for indecent exposure."

"Umm…"

Gou sighed. She was going to have to take care of this. Amakata seemed to be at a loss as to how to explain it. "No, no one got arrested or is _going _to get arrested." She rubbed her aching forehead. She could feel a headache forming behind her eyes and she suddenly remembered she was still hung over. _Best to just get it over with quickly, like ripping a band-aid off. Then I can go sleep off this hang over. _"Um. D-do you guys remember last night? At all? Anything?"

Haru and Nagisa looked like they didn't – no surprise there - but Makoto was nodding. One was better than nothing Gou supposed.

"Okay well, I…I had a little too much to drink last night, you see. And ummm when I was drunk I…I sort of…" She took a deep breath. _Just get it over with._ "I sort of...got married. To Mikoshiba."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Congratulations!" cried Nagisa. Behind him Makoto was looking like he had just gotten punched in the sternum.

Gou's mouth dropped. "N-not congratulations!"

"Gou-chan used sexual appeal to get him to marry her!"

"I didn't use sexual appeal!"

"Mikoshiba," said Haru slowly. "He's the captain of Rin's swim team isn't he?"

It was not lost on Gou that he said _Rin's swim team _and not _Samezuka's swim team_. "Yes, yes, that's him. He's the tall boy with red hair."

"Ohhh I like him!" cried Nagisa. "The really energetic guy! When's the wedding going to be?!"

"There isn't going to be a wedding!"

"Why would they need a wedding?" asked Haru. "They're already married."

"Wh-what. That isn't-"

"Oh yeah, Haru-chan is right." Nagisa paused, considering, then he brightened. "When's the honeymoon then?!"

Gou's face felt like it was going to burst into flame. They were _completely _missing the point!

"Now, now," said Amakata, interceding at last. "There won't be any more talk of weddings or…or honeymoons." She cleared her throat once more and stuck her hands together as if clapping, becoming all business. "Gou-chan and I have discussed the matter at length. Unfortunately due to the country's laws we are unable to obtain a divorce at this time. But! Once we get back to Japan we will get this situation rectified as soon as possible. Until then." She fixed the three boys with her most dangerous stare, like the one they had received when talking about placing her in a swimsuit, and leaned towards them. Makoto and Nagisa shrank back. Haru just sat there. "Until then we are going to keep this as quiet as possible," she continued. "We are _not_ going to discuss it or let others know about it. We are going to keep this to ourselves and pretend like it never happened. Is that understood?"

"Y-yes, ma'am," Nagisa muttered.

"Good!" She smiled and leaned back. "I'm glad we are all on the same page then."

"I still would have liked to have a wedding," Nagisa continued under his breath.

Gou rolled her eyes. Nagisa _would _think about something like that instead of the seriousness of the situation. She envied him a bit, being so carefree and able to giggle his way out of predicaments. If only she could giggle her way out of this one.

She looked up and noticed the look on Makoto's face had not changed. He still looked like he had been punched in the gut, like he was distraught. He hadn't said a word the entire time either. She made a mental note to speak to him later.

"Well, now," said Amakata. "I have some more unpacking to do" - _Still?! _Thought Gou – "and you four should go get some food. I think Goro left some hot dogs in the fridge for you that you can grill up…"

* * *

It was Haru who cooked the hot dogs surprisingly. And some mackerel to go along with it. Of course. He claimed they went well together but Gou figured he was just trying to have his way with the mackerel. Where he had gotten the fish she didn't know. She wouldn't have been surprised to find out he had gone diving into the ocean and fished for it like a dolphin. It was a good thing mackerel existed in this country. Haru would have had a mental breakdown if they didn't.

It was because of his love for mackerel that he was so good at grilling, Gou figured out. She couldn't help but watch him as he cooked. Haru was a handsome guy, there was no doubt about that, and she found it incredibly intriguing watching him perform something else besides swimming that he was adept at. It was the same as watching him paint, another one of his talents that Gou would never have guessed someone like him would excel at. And he did it all with such a blasé attitude, as if none of that stuff meant anything or mattered.

_The only thing that matters to him is swimming. Just like my brother._

They were more alike than either of them wanted to admit it seemed.

Rei finally showed back up when it was nearing dark, aggravated and starving. Gou intercepted him before the others could, asking him about the errand she had sent him on. The news he delivered made her face heat up again. Tomorrow. She would have to deal with it tomorrow.

_Better sooner than later I guess. _Still she didn't look forward to what an awkward conversation that was going to be.

After they had eaten and when the last rays of the sun were kissing the ocean water, Makoto finally approached her on his own. He looked downright trodden, like a kid that had studied all year for a test and then failed it miserably. When he sat down beside her, Gou blinked at him.

He stared at his hands lying palm open in his lap. "This is my fault."

Oh jeez, he was blaming himself for it. No wonder he had looked like that the entire time. Then again Gou should have known he would. That was just the type of person Makoto was. He would feel responsible for it and blame himself no matter what.

"It's not your fault, it's mine," she said. "I mean I'm ultimately responsible for myself. I was the one who made the stupid decision. I don't remember it but I did…"

Makoto shook his head. "I should never have left you there. I was the only sober one, I should have paid better attention. I should have made you leave with us." He turned to her. His green eyes were incredibly serious. "I'm sorry, Gou-chan."

Gou looked away, feeling even guiltier than she had before. Not only could Amakata possibly lose her job but now Makoto, poor sweet Makoto, was beating himself up over her stupid actions. _God I'm such an idiot._

"You don't have anything to apologize for," she said. "If anything _I _should be the one apologizing. I'm the one who got everyone into this mess. You have nothing to be sorry for."

Makoto smiled a little, but it was a wan smile, and in his eyes he still had that kicked puppy look.

Gou sighed mentally. "Look, its fine," she reassured him. "We just need to get through these next three months and then we'll be back in Japan where we can get a divorce. Problem solved."

_We? _She had been using that phrase the entire time instead of _I, _including Mikoshiba into her divorce plans without even thinking about it. Then again she couldn't imagine what reason Mikoshiba would have not to go along with it. No, surely he would agree with her.

"Okay." Makoto took a deep breath, losing some of that saddened look. "I understand. And," he turned to look at seriously again, green eyes bright with determination, "I promise I won't let anything else bad happen to you. I swear it."

"Oh stop it. This isn't that bad-" She stopped herself. "Okay it's bad but it's not your fault. You don't have to promise me anything."

He still did though.

* * *

Gou sat in the café, nervously sipping from her straw and whopping her foot against the table leg. Every few seconds she would turn to look outside the large windows in the front, searching. She had been waiting for fifteen minutes. Where the hell was he?

_Rei said he would meet me here…_

The errand Rei had run for her yesterday. She had him go over to Mikoshiba's place to arrange a meeting. If Rin had seen her at Mikoshiba's place he would flip, but Rei going over there wouldn't be that unusual. Rin would probably assume they were discussing swimming or something.

Gou turned back around. She fiddled with the marriage certificate she had tucked into her jacket. Her stomach was so upset with her edginess she had hardly eaten anything that morning. She could feel it growling. At least she wasn't hung over anymore. She really just wanted this to be over with already.

She saw his tall form a mere second before he was next to her. "Yo." He paused. "Are you in disguise?"

She was but apparently it hadn't worked that well if he had recognized her right away. She tore the sunglasses off her face with a touch of annoyance. The baseball cap followed shortly after and she shook out her disheveled hair. So much for that.

"Sorry I'm late." He sat down on the opposite side of the table from her, slouching down with his hands in his pants pockets. "Ueda pulled a muscle in his leg that had to be taken care of."

Taking care of his teammates. She couldn't be angry for him being late because of that. Since he was the swim team captain he was in charge and responsible for them. They would always come first.

Speaking of legs, his long legs took up pretty much the entire space under the table. They were only a mere inch away from Gou's own and she regretted suddenly wearing a skirt. She could feel the warmth of him even through the fabric of his jeans.

"Rei said you wanted to talk to me."

He was using Rei's first name. That was a bit surprising. Did he feel that close to the Iwantobi swimming boys? "Uhhh, yes." Gou glanced around herself then stuck her hand into her jacket. She took out the marriage certificate. When she laid it on the table, she didn't miss the expression in his golden eyes. He looked like he didn't really know what to do with it, as if it were some kind of foreign animal.

Gou rubbed her lips together. "I don't suppose you know much about the laws in this country, do you?"

He looked at her blankly.

She hadn't expected he would. "Soooo." She clasped her hands under her chin. "In this country, as I've come to find out, divorce is illegal. So is the annulment of marriages."

The flash in his eyes was unmistakable. Dismay and anxiety. But he held it together and Gou quickly moved to finish, "But I've talked with some people and we've figured out we can get a divorce when we get back home to Japan where it _is _legal. Once we get back home we can get a divorce." She leaned back. "However, as I'm sure you know, that isn't for another...three months."

He did not respond for a long moment, appearing to be mulling it over. "You're trying to say that while we're in this country we have to stay married no matter what?"

"Yes," she said. "Well, unless you want to go to jail. I personally don't. I'd hope you agree."

He was silent again. "What do you propose we do for the next three months then?"

"We'll act like nothing happened," Gou said it right away. "We'll act like this never happened and that we didn't do…didn't do this. We'll keep it as quiet as possible so no one will know about it when we get back home. We'll just pretend it never happened and act as normal."

He didn't respond. He picked up the marriage certificate and held it in front of his face. For a minute Gou could only see the paper between them. Finally he lowered it, tossing it lightly to the table top. "Alright," he said. "If that's what we have to do then that's what we'll do." He ran his hands through his hair on the back of his head.

His easy acceptance of the situation annoyed her for some reason. Why wasn't he freaking out like she had been? Then again it had been a day since it had happened. He had likely had some time to think about it and calm down.

"It's definitely not the most ideal situation," he was saying, "and I hate to leave it as it, but it doesn't sound like we have much choice. We'll just have to deal with it and get through the three months the best we can."

Gou sank in her chair. "Yeah." They had no other choice but to deal with it. There was no escaping or fixing their predicament at least not for now. Gou could feel her frustration building up, anger at the situation and herself for the stupid thing she had done. But since she couldn't take it out on herself, she lashed out at the other half that had caused the problem. "Let's have fun, right? Let's go crazy, right?" she said bitingly, throwing his words back at him. Mikoshiba looked up in surprise. "I wouldn't have gone along with it if I knew it was going to be something like this!"

"What are you- I never intended to-" He stopped himself, forcing himself to lower his voice as a waitress walked by. "I never meant for us to go get married! All I wanted to do was show you a good time-" Gou turned red at his wording, "because you were upset about your brother! I just wanted you to have some fun instead of sitting there moping all night. That's all! I never planned on this happening."

"I've never had a drink in my life until I hung out with you! You were the one who invited us to that bar!" She glared at him. "This is all your fault."

Mikoshiba leaned back, rolling his eyes away and exhaling sharply, his hand gesturing slightly to the marriage certificate as if to say, 'my signature isn't the only one on that document'.

Well, he did have a point there. Gou sobered, feeling her anger dissipating after letting some of it out. "You didn't…tell my brother did you?"

He gave her a lofty look that she was unable to discern. "No. I haven't told anyone."

He hadn't needed an adult to confide in like Gou had. Then again had Samezuka even brought any teachers with them? She didn't believe they had, it seemed like Mikoshiba typically handled everything on his own without an adults help. He was the type of person who could handle anything thrown at him on his own without anyone else's help. Gou envied him a bit for that.

"Good," said Gou. "We can't tell him. _Seriously_. He can't know. If he finds out he'll kill you."

Mikoshiba grinned a little. "I already figured as much." Of course he had. With the way things were now _he _probably knew her own brother better than she did. He spent a lot more time around him than she did currently. "I don't intend to tell him," said Mikoshiba.

Gou was relieved. Having Mikoshiba on the same page as her when it came to her brother made her life so much easier and less stressed. If Mikoshiba had insisted on telling Rin she didn't know what she would do. Running away to Mexico would have likely been the best plan in that case.

"Hey, um, by the way." Gou twisted her fingers together. She swallowed. "Do you…do you remember anything? I mean from that night."

He shook his head. "I remember being at the bar but I don't remember anything after that. I don't even remember leaving."

Gou was turning red again. She forced the words out. "We didn't…I don't think…We didn't…."

Mikoshiba eyebrows creased in confusion at what she was getting at.

Gou's face was flaming. "We didn't…y'know."

He understood then. He looked away again and Gou was surprised to see a faint dusting of red across his cheeks. "I-I don't think so."

Was it possible that Mikoshiba was a virgin? She had never thought about it before but his flush now made her think it. Honestly she sort of expected for him not to be. He was a good looking guy after all and older than she was.

What had he thought when he woke up that morning, she wondered. He had been in nothing but his underwear after all, while she had at least been fully clothed when she awoke. He must have realized she had been there. Had she…touched him? _Oh god. _Had she seen…_it _that night and just not remembered it? It wouldn't have been hard to considering his state of clothing, or lack thereof. _I have to stop thinking about this._

"Did we ummm…Did we kiss?"

Mikoshiba's face was definitely red. He closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know. We must have had to when we got married."

_When we got married._ This situation was so damn bizarre."O-oh." Gou lowered her eyes. Had they kissed at all outside of that? If they kissed when they got married it might have just been a quick peck. That didn't count as a real kiss. Did it?

_My first kiss and I don't even remember it. _She wanted to wail. _This whole situation is horrible._

There was a strange sound and Gou looked up to see Mikoshiba pulling out his phone. _His phone? _So he had gotten one in this country already. Gou still needed to do that. With everything that had been happening she had totally forgotten she needed a new phone.

Mikoshiba frowned down at the screen. "I have to go. Our hosts need to figure out our schedule for our stay here."

"O-oh." Why did she feel disappointed suddenly? "Okay…"

He motioned to the marriage certificate still sitting on the table. "Are you going to hold onto that?"

"A-ah yeah." It was for the best that she did, she figured. If Mikoshiba had it there was no telling if Rin might stumble on it. It was safer with her, where she could keep it among people who already knew about it.

Mikoshiba stood, tucking the phone back into his pocket. He wasn't looking at her again. Maybe he didn't know how to handle the situation, which had now turned awkward. Neither did Gou.

He coughed. "I'll see you later, I suppose." He gave her a slight wave and then headed out of the café. He didn't look back, his focus already on other things. Gou watched him leave, and wondered why she felt cheated.

* * *

**A big thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed, favorite, or reed this! Seriously I am very surprised at the reception this fic received considering it has like no plot.**

**Other pairings will be traditional ones but they will be kept in the background.**

**Now sleep time!**


	3. History

**Oh my god. I have no idea what I'm doing with my life anymore.**

**So I was very unhappy with how chapter 2 came out considering I wrote it in the middle of the week where I don't have a lot of free time and don't get much sleep. It just felt very rushed and sloppy. So I went through it again today and made some changes that should hopefully improve it. Nothing big enough that would require a reread but I feel a lot happier with it now and I hope you guys will too. The ONLY thing that I added that is important is that Gou and Mikoshiba talk about not telling Rin about their situation (because I am dumb and forgot this important part when first writing the chapter - I need more sleep). Hopefully this won't happen again as I finally feel like I have a better grasp of where I want to take this story and some semblance of plot finally.**

* * *

When Gou returned to their lodging Goro had quite a few things to say to her. He was the only one who hadn't yet voiced his opinion so he did so when she returned from her meeting with Mikoshiba. Most of the things he said she had heard from various people already, only he said it much more loudly and vehemently. She bore it all in silence. She knew she deserved it. Her reckless decision had put quite a few people in a sticky situation and could have harming effects on not just herself but others too.

There was one thing however that Goro said that did strike a cord with her. That if she were his daughter he would have grounded her for the rest of her life and never allow her out of the house, much less near any boys.

_If you were my daughter. _Gou couldn't help but think upon it later when she was tucking the marriage certificate safely into a drawer. What would her own father think about her situation, she wondered. Would he be angry? Most likely. Or maybe he would have been happy for her, as some dads can weirdly do when their daughters do reckless things. Maybe he would have looked upon the marriage as a blessing instead of a mistake. He had given up his dreams of becoming an Olympic swimmer to marry her mother and have children after all. Maybe her father would be the type of man to see her marriage as a positive.

It was strange thinking of him in that way. Gou hadn't thought about her father in such a long time. It wasn't due to lack of caring. She had been very young when he died and she could barely remember anything about him. The only thing she could really recall was his hands. She remembered they had been big and rough from hard work and sea salt and wind, but they had been gentle when they touched her hair or picked her up. That is all she can remember after so long. She can't even recall his face anymore.

Unlike her brother. Rin had been older than she when their father passed away. He remembered their father much more clearly, remembered more than just his hands. He remembered his father's dreams and his ambitions, his dreams and his sacrifices much more clearly, felt them so much more. Yet, like Gou, he couldn't remember their father's face either. But that fact only seemed to haunt him all the more than if he actually _could _remember.

When Gou tried to picture her father's face now all she saw was-

Well, that part wasn't important.

Gou closed the drawer and left the room, trying her best to put those sorts of thought out of her mind.

* * *

She stood in front of the glass counter, peering down at the objects that lay sedately within on a red cloth as if they were some sort of precious jewels. They were anything but. Cell phones. Big clunky ones, those old style flip cell phones with the thick bottom and the tiny display window on the front. Gou's first phone when she was twelve had been one of these. She hadn't missed it.

_Well it is only for the next three months. _Regardless of how ugly or bulky they were the phones would serve the purpose they needed them to during their stay here.

There weren't many to choose from either. The store had a limited set of colors and Goro loudly insisted they weren't going to go around looking or spend any more money than they had to when Nagisa complained about it.

Gou wanted to get the pink one but somehow Nagisa managed to snag that one before her. Purple then? Nope, Rei had grabbed that color. Seriously, did they _have_ to pick the girliest colors that were available? Gou tried not to let her irritation show. She was the girl, she should be able to have the girliest color!

Haru had picked blue, of course, Gou knew better than to ever consider getting that color for herself. Makoto had chosen green. Amakata had gotten a soft pleasant yellow color and Goro orange. Which left the only other color available. Grey.

Gou sighed heavily. Oh well, it was just for the next three months. She could bear with an ugly phone for that long.

After receiving the ugly clunky phone, Gou stepped outside with the others to program their new phones and exchange numbers. It was a bit of a confusing situation. Nagisa had already forgotten his new number and Amakata had never gotten it in the first place. They had to spend some time calling each other to figure everything out. After twenty minutes of frustration and once everyone had each other's number, Amakata and Goro departed to head back to the lodge, Amakata with a good natured wave and Goro snarling at them to stay out of trouble. "If one of you _boys_ suddenly decides to get married, I'll drown y-" he stopped, a better idea seeming to hit him, and he finished with, "I'll _never _let you in the pool ever, ever again."

A much more terrible threat for sure. Haru looked like someone had just told him the world was coming to an end.

"Speaking of marriages," Nagisa said once Amakata and Goro had departed, "you're going to have to get Captain Mikoshiba's number, aren't you?"

Gou's face heated. "Why would I need that?"

"It actually wouldn't be a bad idea to have it," Makoto mused and instantly held up his hands when Gou turned her hot glare on him. "I mean just considering the situation. You two do have some…unusual circumstances. You might need to contact each other quickly."

He did have a point there. Gou couldn't send Rei over to Mikoshiba's every time she needed to talk to she, much as she would prefer to. As of right now she couldn't foresee any reason why she would need to talk to Mikoshiba. They had made their plans and had nothing else to discuss. Still it wouldn't hurt to have his number in case an emergency came up.

"Alright, alright. I'll get his number when I see him."

As they turned to walk towards the rest of the city, Nagisa began wondering aloud what color other people's phones would be. "I bet Rin-chan's phone is black," he said.

_Or white_. For some reason Gou couldn't help but imagine him having a white phone instead of a black one. Black didn't really seem to suit him.

"Nitori's would be grey to match his hair."

_Rude._

"I wonder what color Mikoshiba's phone is," pondered Nagisa.

Gou didn't need to imagine that one. _Red, _she thought. _It's red. The same color as his hair._

* * *

They didn't have anything else on their schedule for that day. Due to the high volume of swimmers in the program each school had a set schedule for when they could use the pool for practice. At the moment it was only once a week but the host country was looking to increase that to two or three times a week once everything got smoothed out, and were even seeing about obtaining students access to other private pools. Like most programs, more students had enrolled than the host country had initially been suspecting and they were now having difficulty accommodating them.

"There will be two rounds of competition." Gou read off the schedule they had been given. As manager she felt responsible for this sort of thing so had put herself in charge of it. "The first competition won't be for two months. The host country wants to give the students time to adjust to the time difference so no team has an advantage over the other and also to give the students time to learn about the culture."

"Two months," said Makoto thoughtfully. "That will give us some time to improve."

Rei fisted his hands as if he were about to get into a boxing match. "I will definitely improve my times! I've been studying the theory on it!"

Makoto smiled. "It's not just you, Rei. All of us need to improve."

"Yeah, Rei-chan!" Nagisa chimed in. "Let's all improve together!"

Gou couldn't help but smile a little herself. It was nice seeing them all so enthusiastic. Even if Haru didn't say anything she knew he would try as hard if not harder than the others. Her brother was in the competition with him after all.

"The top eight teams of each event will progress to the second and final round," Gou continued reading. "The final event will take place after the initial one."

"Only two rounds?" asked Nagisa.

Gou nodded. "Due to having other clubs like the art and debate clubs competing respectively the host country couldn't afford to hold more rounds than that." She shook out the paper. "It's going to be very competitive."

"I'm sure it will be fine," said Makoto, always the optimistic one. "We just need to improve as much as we can and try our best."

"That last event," said Haru. "The final one. That's right before we leave, isn't it?"

"It is," said Gou. "We leave shortly afterwards."

"But the winner of each event will win $5,000, right?" asked Nagisa eagerly.

"That's correct."

"Alright!" Nagisa threw his hand in the air. "Let's win that money! In all events!"

Makoto chuckled. "It isn't just about the money, Nagisa."

"No, but it won't hurt to have! Otherwise we'll be lifting weights and running track all winter! Who wants that?"

"No one," Haru deadpanned.

"R-running track isn't so bad," muttered Rei but quietly.

"We'll have our time with the pool," said Gou, returning to the program. "There's lots of other stuff on here too. Lots of events we have to participate in so we learn about the host country."

The museum of history, a wine vineyard, a trip to one of the country's most prestigious spas and hot springs pools – "Ama-chan will like that one," Gou said with a snicker – a tour of one of the country's industrial facilities, a marine park, and a few others. Some sounded interesting, others not so much. The museum of history would be tomorrow.

With nothing scheduled for them, they spent the rest of the day exploring the city, trying different foods – both good and bad – and checking out the local shops. They purchased little knick knacks to bring back to their families at home in Japan, little keepsakes of the foreign nation they were in. Makoto bought items for his brother and sister as well as his parents. Rei got something for his parents and Nagisa for his sisters. He also tried to buy something for Rei as well for some reason but they were all weird things. Rei protested that none of the things were beautiful and why would he need something when he was right there anyway. Haru didn't have anyone in his family to buy for so he bought stuff for Makoto's siblings instead, trying to shrug it off as if it were no big deal when Makoto looked at him in shock.

Gou spent some time searching, finally finding a lovely silver crafted ring with an pearl on it. Her mother loved pearls. Crafted by the rolling waters of the sea. She had once told Gou that pearls reminded her of Gou's father. It was more money than Gou wanted to spend but worth it. She knew her mother would appreciate it.

She slipped it onto her finger for safe keeping, knowing it would be better there than in her bag where someone could pick pocket it. It looked nice on there as well, though she imagined it would look better on her mother's finger.

As sunset neared they headed back to their lodges, not wanting to be out when the more unruly nighttime crowd came out to indulge in the low age restriction for alcohol. Even Nagisa grimaced at the mention of that.

"I'm sure it's helping their economy out a lot though," Rei commented as they walked back. "Having so many young students here willing to throw money around for it. I'm sure they'll make much more in market sales then they'll lose by giving out those cash prizes."

Rei did have a point. Not only was the program a good way to improve relations with other nations but the host country would make a ton of money off the purchases the schools and their students would make while residing here. It was a win-win for the host country.

Gou felt someone's eyes on her and she glanced up. Haru was staring at her for some reason. Or more accurately staring at her hand. He must have felt her eyes on him too, for he looked up at her face. "Nice ring."

"Oh, t-thank you."

He turned his face away but she could still see his profile. He was smirking a little. She couldn't believe it. "What's so funny?"

His smirk almost widened but he managed to restrain it with some difficulty. "Nothing," he said. "Nothing at all."

* * *

The museum was indeed impressive, at least from the outside. It was big, with giant pillars that stretched above Gou's head, and the stonework was fascinating, ancient and yellowed with age and accented with darkened bronze. Nagisa made a comment about it being beautiful, which Rei responded that it was but it had once been used as a deadly military base back during some war or other. Whatever. It was too early for Gou to care what had happened here in eons past. Why had the host country decided to host this sort of thing so early? Even if she had gone to sleep at a good time getting up early was still bothersome.

They waited in the lobby for additional schools to arrive. To save on time and man power, the host country had decided to have schools participate in the programs together. And since Iwatobi was a smaller group they would surely be paired with others. It would be a school from Japan Gou was certain. The host country wouldn't want to throw them together with students they couldn't communicate with, plus it would require them to have additional translators present. No it would most definitely be another Japanese school.

Stifling a yawn, Gou looked up at the painting adorned vaulted ceiling. Most of the paintings were…quite bloody. Depictions of conquerors ordering executions or great battles between various factions. How unpleasant. She lowered her gaze with a grimace.

The door opened and Gou looked to see who the other school would be. She froze. _Oh, no. Why _them _of all people!_

Samezuka swim team came piling in like a tidal wave of lemmings, nearly five times the amount of people Iwatobi had when you included every student regardless of year. They were dressed in normal clothes and Gou may not have recognized them as Samezuka if she hadn't seen Rin right away. He stopped upon seeing her, surprise showing on his face, and then something which might have been irritation or annoyance at seeing the boys.

Beyond the doors Gou could hear Mikoshiba's deep voice. She could already see his tall frame coming through. He would _have _to be here. _Oh god, what am I supposed to do? _If Rin saw them together…

Gou backed up. Unable to think of anything else, she hid behind the tallest person currently in the room. Makoto blinked down at her form cowering in front of him. "Are you alright, Gou-chan?"

"Shhh!" she hissed. "Don't say my name!"

But hiding behind Makoto had not been a good idea either. He was the Iwatobi Swim Team Captain. Who else would Mikoshiba approach? And he did, almost right away.

"Ah, Tachibana-san! Good Morning!"

Gou buried her face in her hands, barely realizing that Mikoshiba had used Makoto's last name. Why had he used Rei's first name the other day when he called Makoto by his last name?

"A-ah, Captain Mikoshiba." Makoto half turned. "Good morning."

Gou tried to make herself as small as possible. Maybe Mikoshiba wouldn't see her…

But he did and, when he did, his eyes lit up. "Gou-kun! Good morning! Nice to see you here!" His smile was wide and bright. It lit up his entire face.

"G-good morning." Her eyes were wide. What the hell was he _doing_?! Her brother was _right there_! Had he lost his mind?

To the side she saw Rei bending over to whisper something to Nagisa. Nagisa's head perked up and then he was racing off, shouting, "Rin-chan! Hello! It's nice to see you this morning, Rin-chan! How is your swimming coming?" Rei. He had set Nagisa to distract Rin. Perfect. If there was anyone who could make themselves an inconvenient distraction it was Nagisa.

Gou quickly motioned for Mikoshiba to come here. He blinked and leaned down to be level with her, Makoto's frame still blocking them from view. "What do you think you're doing?" Gou whispered furiously.

"What am I doing?" Mikoshiba sounded genuinely mystified. "I'm acting like nothing happened."

Gou's mouth fell open. Was he joking around? Above them Makoto let out a nervous chuckle. His face was almost as red as Gou's own, and he kept glancing behind himself to where Rin was. Haru just looked bored.

"If we acted weird around each other or ignored each other that'd be odd, right?" Mikoshiba continued. "That would only draw more suspicion. It's things like that expression you wear right now that would get us caught." He pointed a finger at her red face and she leaned away from the offending digit.

Damn him, he was right. If they were going to act like nothing happened then he would have to act like he had towards her before that night and not be uptight. If he acted suddenly distant and awkward around her then Rin would catch on like a shark smelling blood in the water. And she had to do the same. If she avoided Mikoshiba, Rin would notice that as well.

Gou glared at the corner of the room, biting her bottom lip. "Alright, fine. I get it."

Mikoshiba smiled at her then he straightened, popping up beside Makoto like a cork from a wine bottle. "Alright!" he shouted to his team. "Let's get this show on the road! Lots of history to learn! Have fun but keep your hands to yourselves! Don't touch anything and don't get into any trouble!"

He moved away from them, his team following, the guides for the tour scrambling with so many people now. Rin passed by Gou and Makoto, muttering something irritably about Nagisa's loud voice but otherwise paying no attention to the Iwatobi swim team. Gou felt her muscles relax. Good. He hadn't seen her talking to Mikoshiba. Nagisa had done his job well.

"W-well," Makoto coughed. "I guess that wasn't so bad." He was still red. "R-right?"

"If _you_ don't act normal you're going to be the one to get them caught," Haru intoned, causing Makoto to stiffen.

Gou took a deep breath. Okay, she just had to act normal. That shouldn't be…too hard? Ugh. She would just have to pretend that marriage certificate didn't exist in that drawer back in the lodge. That would be the best and easiest thing to do. _This sucks._

Nagisa came up beside them, looking positively excited and pretty proud of himself. He winked. "I did well, didn't I, Rei-chan?"

Rei was beaming like a teacher that was proud of his student or a boyfriend whose significant other had done something amazing. "Yes, Nagisa-kun, you did very well!"

Gou rolled her eyes and shook her head, albeit fondly. All of them were idiots, herself included. "Thank you, Makoto, and thank you for doing that, Nagisa-kun."

He smiled at her and with another deep breath, Gou began the tour of the history museum with the Samezuka swim team.

* * *

It didn't take very long for Gou to figure out the country had a violent history. Decorated with betrayals, suicides, corruption, genocide, religious persecution, and extortion of power by various warlords, the country's history was quite bloody and littered with corpses.

"Here we have a painting of Princess Ira Parisa," the guide was saying, gesturing to a picture of a woman dressed in what looked like a gauzy wedding gown that was nearly see through. "In 1866 she was betrothed to the Duke of Normontshire, however after her wedding day she refused to lay with her husband."

_Good for her_, thought Gou.

"She was later beheaded," the guide went on.

Gou grimaced. _Not so good for her._

She stopped in front of a large gray stone carved with runes. A description was beside it and Gou leaned in to read the letters. Another story about a princess. This one had the princess betrothed to a prince but being in love with someone else, and refusing to marry the prince. Gou clasped her hands for the power of love. How romantic!

A shadow fell over her and Gou glanced out of the corner of her eye, already knowing who to expect from the height and shape of the hair in the shadow. Mikoshiba. "Every bit of history about this country seems rather violent," he mumbled distractedly. "It's always someone getting beheaded or stabbed in the back or a sword in the stomach."

The corner of Gou's mouth tweaked up. "I noticed."

Mikoshiba leaned forward to see what she was reading and Gou fought the urge to move away from him. He was incredibly close, practically leaning over her shoulder, but they were trying to act normal. She forced herself to stay put, despite the fact she could feel his body heat along her upper arm.

_He smells like sun and wind._

She closed her eyes in an effort to banish that unruly thought.

"What's this about?"

"T-the Princesss Branwen Mala," said Gou. "She refused her arranged loveless marriage in order to marry the man she was truly in love with!" She clasped her hands together once again, eyes starry.

Mikoshiba's gaze, which had been briefly on her, moved slowly back to the description. He leaned forward further to better read it. His chest brushed against Gou's shoulder. Gou fought to keep her heart beat even.

"It says here on the bottom she was burned to death for her crimes."

Gou closed her eyes very tightly, hands tightening around where she still clasped them. She hadn't read that part yet. "T-the princesses don't seem to get treated very well in the country," she remarked.

"The princes either." Mikoshiba straightened. "I read one of them was caught in bed with a prostitute. He was castrated and hung for it."

"What about the prostitute?"

"She was paid and sent on her way. She was just doing her job after all."

"O-oh." _Okay. _It occurred to her then what she had talked about with the guys earlier. Mikoshiba's cell phone number! She needed it. She was about to ask him for it when there came a crashing sound somewhere down the next hallway. "I-I hope that's one of yours and not ours."

"It likely is." Mikoshiba turned to walk away then paused as if to say something, but his mouth stopped before he had formed the word. His eyebrows lowered, looking oddly at Gou's clasped hands. Gou blinked, but he moved off without another word, leaving Gou standing there utterly confused.

_What was _that_ about?_

* * *

For the rest of the tour she hardly saw him and anytime she did catch sight of him he was surrounded by his teammates. _The one time I actually want him to come up to me is the one time when he doesn't. _Gritting her teeth, she waited.

Rin had pretty much ignored her too. He had kept mostly to himself and the only one he appeared to interact at all with was that Nitori boy. Anytime Gou tried to talk to him he would give her a short answer and walk had wanted to mention the ring to him but it looked like he was in a bad mood. She would wait until later.

There was a gift shop at the end of the tour. All of the students were encouraged to go inside and take a look, the guides suggesting they buy something for their relatives back home. They would do something like that, thought Gou, remembering the point Rei had made about the economy yesterday. The more money the students spent the better the host country was.

She searched the gift shop but there was no sign of Mikoshiba. She knew she hadn't missed him. He was a hard guy to miss with his height and hair color when you were trying to find him. Which meant he wasn't in the gift shop. _I can't believe I'm hunting him down like…like an actual wife! _

She finally ran into Makoto and Haru looking over some figurines of dolphins and orcas. "Have you seen Mikoshiba?"

"Mikoshiba?" Makoto considered for a moment. "I think he's outside."

With an exasperated noise Gou made her way to the exit. Makoto called out after her, "What do you need him for?" Gou raised her hand to her ear in the sign of a phone. "Ah," said Makoto.

She found him quickly once outside. Further down the building, leaning against the wall, punching away a text on his phone. She ran over to him, praying he didn't move before she got to him, and she was puffing by the time she reached him.

"H-hey." She leaned over to catch her breath, so preoccupied with trying to get some oxygen she missed the slightly frigid look he gave her. "Phew." She wiped a hand across her brow. "I've been looking for you. What was that crashing sound earlier?" She had never found out what had caused that noise and didn't want to start the conversation off with asking for his number, thinking that would be short and rude. The Iwatobi boys hadn't been the ones to cause the crash. If it had they would likely be sweating and handing out more money than they had right now. So it had to be someone from Samezuka.

Mikoshiba didn't look at her, his gaze still locked on his phone. "Azuma leaned too far over and knocked over one of those velvet rope restraints," he said. "That's all."

His tone took her back a bit. It was the tone he normally used when speaking with his swim team. His captain's tone. She was not used to him speaking to her with it. "O-oh, I see." She dug into her pocket to try and retrieve her cell phone. "I need uhhh-"

"Hey."

He said it quite suddenly and she paused at the directness of that one word. She blinked. He lowered his phone a bit and looked at her. His gaze was eerily intense, made all the worse by the vividness of his golden eyes. She wasn't sure what to make of it.

It was a moment before he said anything else and when he did speak his tone was still his captain's voice. "That ring on your finger." His words were slow and measured. "I didn't give you one. Who gave it to you?"

_Ring? _She brought her hand up in front of her face. The ring she had bought yesterday with the pearl was on her hand. But why did he care about something like that? _Why does that matt-_

With a start she realized and let out an appalled little shriek. _Oh my god! _

Unwittingly she had placed the ring on her left ring finger. The ring finger of her left hand. Where a wedding ring would go. Suddenly she understood why Haru had been smirking about it yesterday.

"I-I bought it for my mother." Quickly she moved to remove it, switching it to the other hand. She could feel the blood rising in her face. "I never even thought about…Oh God!" Her hands clapped onto her cheeks. She couldn't believe she had missed that. What if her brother had seen it? Then again normally she would never have had to think about something like that before. Normal teenagers generally weren't concerned about which finger they wore their rings on.

_Normal teenagers…_That was funny.

"Oh." Mikoshiba's gaze was still elsewhere but his face was a little more relaxed than it had been, his eyes losing their intensity. "I see, so that's what it was."

Gou ground the heel of her hand into her forehead. She was so dumb. She really needed to pay attention to things more. She hadn't even been drunk this time! _I am going to die from stress in these next three months, I swear! Or I am going to have so many wrinkles people will think I'm old!_

"A-anyway, I." She tried to refocus on the present. "I need your number."

Mikoshiba turned his head to look at her, eyebrows creased. "My number?"

"Y-your cell phone number." Gou finally succeed in extracting her phone from her pocket. She held it out to him.

Mikoshiba didn't take it. He looked at the ugly grey phone dangling in the air between them. "Why would you need that?"

Gou rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Just in case I need to get in contact with you, that's why. It will make things easier than forcing Rei to play messenger. If I need to get in contact with you quickly this is the best way." She held the phone out to him again, giving him a pointed look that said 'don't make this any harder than it is, please'.

"Why don't you tell me the number and I'll just call it then?"

Gou closed her eyes and grit her teeth. "Because I don't remember my number. I just got it yesterday." She wiggled the dangling phone. "Just put yours in. Please."

That seemed to do it. That or he finally realized the only way for her to get his number was for him to -punch it in himself. He took the ugly phone from her hand. Gou waited for him to finish, brooding over the ring incident. She still couldn't believe she had missed that. And Haru! He should have said something instead of laughing. Then again if she had been in his situation she might have found it amusing too. The girl who was married, accidentally putting rings on her left ring finger like a wedding ring. A thought occurred to her then and she narrowed her eyes.

Mikoshiba _hadn't _bought her a ring! He hadn't even _given_ her one, not that he likely had any to give in the first place. He had left her married and ringless! _How cheap._

"Here." Mikoshiba held out the phone to her. She took it and flipped it open. "What's your number?" he asked then shook his head, remembering she didn't know it.

"Don't worry, I'm calling you right now."She scrolled through the names, looking for his. Seijuro. He had put his number in her phone by his first name. Gou stared at it for a long moment. Why was seeing that of all things making her blush? Forcing that aside, Gou punched the call button. His phone rang a second later and he pushed the end key, staring down at the screen.

"Got it."

"Good." Gou took a deep breath. It felt like it had taken quite the effort just to get his cell phone number. Then again ever since arriving in this country her days had been crazy. Why would today be any different?

Some of the Samezuka members emerged outside, apparently done with their shopping. They called out to Mikoshiba, who raised his hand in response. "Time to go." He pushed himself off the wall. "Looks like your guys are ready too."

Gou turned. The four boys had emerged from the gift shop. They had seen her but they had not come over, giving her and Mikoshiba privacy. Gou saw a head of brownish red hair pass behind them and Nagisa jumped and twirled around as if he had been shocked. "Rin-chan!" Gou could hear him nearly shouting. "Did you buy anything from the store?"

The blond was bobbing and weaving like a meerkat to block Rin's view. Noticing his predicament, Rei moved stealthily behind Nagisa, blocking the view better with his superior height, keeping his back to the two.

Definitely time to go. Mikoshiba cut across the grass to join his members without having to walk with Gou so by the time got away from Nagisa they were quite far apart and Gou felt safe enough that even if Rin did see them he wouldn't think anything of it.

Nagisa had his hand over his chest when she joined them. "My heart is beating so fast, Rei-chan," he said breathlessly. "It's going ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump."

"You did great, Nagisa-kun!" Rei encouraged him. "Rin never suspected a thing!"

"Yes, it went good this time," said Makoto, frowning after the retreating backs of the Samezuka academy, "but let's hope that doesn't happen too often. I'm not sure if next time we'll get so lucky and Nagisa looks like he might have a heart attack besides."

"If Mikoshiba and Gou act normally they won't have to hide it," pointed out Haru blandly. "If they act no differentially than before why should Rin suspect anything?"

"That's true." Makoto looked at Gou. "I know Mikoshiba and you talked about it earlier but do you really think you can do that?"

She nodded. "Of course. I will definitely do so." For the boys and everyone else she would _have _to. She didn't want them having to cover for her like that any time Rin was around. It wasn't fair to them. They should be enjoying themselves rather than stressing out over her.

"Let's head back to the lodge, please," said Rei. "I'm feeling awfully depressed after that history tour."

The others laughed a little, though none of them would disagree. Nothing about the history of this country was practically joyful or happy.

"Let's go home and watch Friday the 13th!" Nagisa proclaimed as they started the walk back.

"We aren't watching that!"

"Aw, why not, Rei-chan? Are you afraid of scary movies?"

"I don't want to watch something that depressing! Let's watch a happy movie."

"March of the Penguins," said Haru.

"But that isn't happy at all, Haru-chan!" Nagisa cried. "All then penguins _die _in that. Haru-chan is so cruel…"

* * *

It was getting late by the time they finished the movie. They had spent almost an hour arguing over what to see when first getting to the lodge; no one had seemed able to agree on anything. They had finally settled on 'The Hangover', a movie that made Gou a little uncomfortable considering how it reminded her of…things. At least she hadn't woken up that morning hung over, married _and_ missing a tooth. Or with a tattoo on her face for that matter.

_I'm guess I'm lucky in some ways. _She snorted.

After the movie Gou went to her lodge for some quiet time away from the boys. As much as she adored them sometimes she had to get away from all the testosterone. She looked forward to when Hana would arrive with the debate team. It would be nice to have another girl around besides Amakata, who Gou adored as well but Amakata was older and a teacher. Gou couldn't exactly hang around her like she could with a girl her own age. She was missing have other girls around. So far she couldn't recall seeing a single girl her age around. It was all guys. Swimming guys with nice muscles. But still. She wanted the company of another female sometimes too.

She had only been in the lodge for a half hour or so when her phone went off. Leaning over, Gou saw a message from Rei flashing on the screen. That was a bit odd. What would Rei have to text her about? She flipped the phone open.

"_Please come by the lodge. I must speak to you about something."_

Jeez, even his text messages were super proper. Still the wording gave her pause. What would he need to speak to her about and what would be so urgent that he would call her rather than just wait until he saw her tomorrow?

Trying to ignore the worrisome feeling in her stomach, Gou got up and made her way next door to the boys lodge. Rei was waiting for her by the front door. He wasted no time once she entered. "Please come with me."

Gou pursed her lips, but followed him. He led her into the room he shared with Nagisa, who was currently absent. From the sounds of it he was out on the porch with the two other boys trying to get a telescope to work and failing miserably.

Gou was unsurprised to see that half of the room the two boys shared was incredibly clean and immaculate, and the other side peppered with clothing that had been thrown around haphazardly. How Rei dealt with it Gou didn't know, but from the get go he had always been incredibly tolerant with Nagisa. It was likely he let Nagisa get away with things he would never let anyone else get away with. It was pretty endearing.

"I picked up this book from the gift shop." Rei sat down on the bed that looked to be his. If the clean pressed sheets that were carefully tucked in were anything to go by. Nagisa's bed looked like he had thrown the sheets on top of it and hoped gravity would take care of the rest.

Gou leaned in to peer at the book in Rei's hands. 'The Rule of Law'. Gou's eyelids lowered to half mast. Rei _would_ pick out something boring like that to read.

"I wanted to read this because of what was going on with you and…and I found something that might be…important." Rei's mouth was in that line again. Without further ado he turned the book towards Gou for her to read. One of the passages was highlighted. She read it, eyebrows creasing. She couldn't understand the wording, it was so technical. Something about marriage, a wife, a husband, and living arrangements.

"I don't understand what this means, Rei."

Rei lowered the book to his lap. He adjusted his glasses, mouth set even firmer than before. "In this country they have a law," he said carefully after a moment. "This law…it states that a man…a man and woman who are married…they cannot abide in different establishments."

Gou stared at him. She couldn't breathe or move. Her stomach felt like it had dropped through her shoes. Her heart didn't exist anymore.

"In other words," Rei continued, "this means that Mikoshiba and you." His purple eyes lifted to meet Gou's widened dark ones. "You will have to live together."

Gou's knees met the floor painfully.

* * *

**I'm so sorry Gou-chan! I think this is the meanest I've ever been to a character. Girl can just not catch a break.**

**Thank you all for your reviews, favorites, and follows! You all are lovely!**

**I would however like to take a moment to thank a very special and wonderful reader named Darksknight, who has been incredibly supportive no matter what word vomit drivel I manage to spew out. Seriously, I don't deserve fans like you. Whatever nonsensical nonsense I write you always have something kind to say about it and that means a lot to me! I didn't want you to think I hadn't noticed or was ignoring you, because I know that leaving a review as constantly as you do takes a lot of effort! Thank you so much for your kind words, they mean a lot to me!**


	4. Bed

**I was going to add more to this but I decided I really liked the part this ended at so I left it as is. Consequently it's a bit shorter than last chapters.**

**As a lovely reader pointed out to me, I totally forgot to mention this fic is based pretty solely on the anime. I have read the drama CDs but I only have read them once and don't have as easy access to them as the anime so I won't be incorporating them into this fic. I haven't read High Speed either, I think I saw a translation of it floating around tumblr a few weeks ago but I lost the link. If anyone has it please feel free to share!  
**

* * *

The safest road to hell, Amakata had told her once, is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. She had been quoting some author or other but Gou couldn't remember anymore. Back then she hadn't understand what the quote meant – they had been talking about tests or being late to appointments or seagulls or something at the time when Amakata had rattled off that quote – but now she felt like she understood it just a little bit better.

"I can't live with Mikoshiba!" Gou's eyes are wide as dinner plates. She runs her hands shakily through her hair. "I-I can't. He's a grown man!"

"Actually he's not considered a fully fledged adult yet," Rei corrected. "He's still in high school."

"I don't care!" Gou's shrill voice echoed off the walls. "I can't live with him! He's a _boy_!"

From the other room she could hear the door opening. Her loud tone had likely attracted the attention of the other three boys. Faintly she could hear their curious voices.

"A girl and a boy can't live alone together!" she continued. "Unsupervised! That's…that's just wrong!"

Rei sighed loudly, tolerantly, as if he were dealing with a child throwing a temper tantrum. And in his mind maybe he was. For someone who was as methodical as he was following the law was standard procedure. For Gou to be acting like this was illogical to him. "It's the law, Gou-chan. You don't have much of a say in the matter."

"It's a stupid law!"

"Stupid or not it doesn't make it any less illegal when you're breaking it. The authorities aren't going to _not_ punish you simply because you felt it was stupid."

Gou covered her head with her arms. She let out a suppressed scream that sounded like a tea kettle that was ready. "I can't live with him!"

She hardly noticed the three boys come into the doorway. Nagisa asked, "What's wrong, Gou-chan?"

Rei wasted no time in telling them. "She has to live with Captain Mikoshiba."

"Huh?!" Gou couldn't tell if it had been Nagisa or Makoto who said that, although it was Makoto who followed it with, "Why would Gou have to live with Mikoshiba?"

"It's the law here." Rei held out the law book to them. With a questioning look Makoto took it. He read over the highlighted passage, his lips moving as he read. Nagisa leaned over to look as well and even Haru was stretching himself up to try and read over Makoto's shoulder.

After a few seconds Nagisa leaned away. "What's it say, Rei-chan?"

Rei adjusted his glasses, annoyance touching his features. "It means that a man and a woman who are married must live together. It is illegal for them not to. If you are married you _must _live together, no exceptions."

"So?"

"So," Rei's voice was heavy with frustration, "Gou and Mikoshiba are currently married. Therefore they must live together."

Nagisa made a 'wah!" sound and turned to stare at Gou. Even stoic Haru looked shocked.

"A-a man and woman of any age?" Makoto's face was turning that weird shade of again.

"Age is trivial in this matter. If your marriage is legal and binding then you must reside in the same residence."

"S-surely that can't apply to Gou." Makoto swallowed. " Or Mikoshiba. Neither one of them are citizens of this country."

"They got married here, therefore the law still applies. I've already looked upon that myself, I can assure you."

"Ohhh, no," said Nagisa. "Gou-chan has to live with Captain Mikoshiba."

Gou fisted her hands. "No, I don't! I'm not living with him!"

"You have to," said Rei.

"I don't have to!"

"You do." He stood and smoothed down his clothes. "What you and Mikoshiba are currently doing is illegal. If you continue to live as you do, in separate residences, you could go to jail or…" He stopped and swallowed painfully. His next words came out strained. "We could get…disqualified from the program."

The sounds of shock and terror from the boys nearly made Gou's heart skip a beat. "That can't happen!" Tears were already welling in Nagisa's eyes, even though it hadn't even happened yet. "We can't get booted from the program! That can't happen! If we get booted we won't be able to swim!"

Gou's mouth dropped. "T-that's what you're concerned about?!"

But nobody seemed to be listening to her. "The pools." Haru's eyes were flat, like he had died inside. "The biggest pool in the world. I…" He swooned, as if his knees had given out. He barely managed to limp to Nagisa's bed to sit down heavily on it, his hand spread across his chest. "There were so many I wanted to swim in."

Gou aimed a hot glare at him but even Makoto wasn't taking it well. His face was still that sickly shade of blue. Sweat was starting to bead on his face.

"Yes," said Rei, his voice subdued, like he had just given the worst news in the world. "That is the situation I'm afraid."

Haru sounded like he was about to start hyperventilating.

"Gou-chan!" Nagisa nearly fell to his knees before her, his hands clasped pleadingly. "You have to live with Captain Mikoshiba! If you don't we'll be booted from the program!"

"Are you serious?! He's a boy! I'm not living with a boy!"

"You're living with Coach Sasabe right now," said Nagisa, wiping a trail of dribbling snot onto the back of his hand.

"That's _completely _different! He's your coach! Mikoshiba is a teenage boy!"

"But you're _married _to him!"

Gou's face reddened. Did he really have to say that? The marriage had been a mistake and she was willing to deal with that, but _living _with Mikoshiba? That was too far.

Haru rocketed to his feet so suddenly that everyone flinched away from him. Like a robot he marched over to Gou, his eyes hidden by his hair. He held up his arm stiffly. One of the Iwatobi wooden figurines he'd made dangled from his hand. "If you live with Mikoshiba I'll give this to you."

"I-I don't want that!" Gou backed away the dangling wooden figure. She had so many of them already. "Why do you have one of those with you anyway?"

Haru's entire face sagged, seemingly unable to fathom how his plan hadn't been successful. He stumbled back to the bed.

Nagisa was sobbing now. "I wanted to swim with everyone! I wanted to swim with everyone! Now we won't be able to!"

Rei bent down to try and comfort the sobbing blond. "Be strong, Nagisa-kun!"

Gou raised her eyes to the ceiling. This was really pathetic. "You guys are acting like somebody died!"

"I feel like I've died!" Nagisa proclaimed.

Then Makoto spoke up, "I-It wouldn't be so bad." Gou looked at him. He rubbed the back of his head, avoiding her eyes. "I-I mean, living with Mikoshiba. It…It couldn't be _so bad_, r-right?"

Gou couldn't believe it. Makoto _too_? Of all people?!

He must not have noticed her expression because he kept talking. "I mean it isn't that far from where we are. And you can spend most of your time here. You would just have to go back there to sleep and Mikoshiba, he's a nice guy, it wouldn't be so bad. I mean you guys got along great before all of this happened-"

With a noise of disgust she stomped her way out of the room. She was done. Completely done. None of them seemed to care about her feelings at all when it came to this.

She could hear them talking from inside Rei and Nagisa's room, Makoto saying something about going after her and for the others to stay there. A few seconds later the sounds of his footsteps approached. "Gou-chan, wait! Can we talk about this please?!"

"Why?" she demanded over her shoulder. She was nearly to the door by now. "You guys don't care about what I feel at all!" She knew that wasn't true but she was too caught up in her anger right now. "All you care about is if you get kicked out of the program or not!"

It sounded like Makoto had stopped. His next words came soft and inquisitive rather than frantic. "Don't you?"

Gou made to respond that no, she didn't when it came to this, but something crossed her mind and she froze with her hand halfway to the door handle.

Her brother. Her brother and the words she had said to Makoto right after she had asked to join the swim team. _"You're the only ones who can change my brother."_

Rin. The reason why she had joined the swim team. To bring back the person he used to be. The person she missed the most. If the swim team was disqualified from the program then they - Haru and the others – they wouldn't have the chance to bring her brother back. If they were disqualified nothing would change. They would remain as they were now. _Rin _would remain as he was now.

Gout closed her eyes. _I don't want that._

Makoto, having received no respond, sighed from behind her. "I'll let the others know." He turned to leave.

"W-wait." She could feel Makoto turning back to her. "I-I'll do it."

"Do it?"

"I'll…I'll go stay with Mikoshiba." She dropped her hand back to her side. "Please…please let the others know we won't be disqualified from the program."

She could literally _feel _his happiness spike against her back. "Ah, that's great, Gou-chan!" He likely hadn't been thinking before he said that as he quickly followed it with, "I mean, a-are you sure?"

She took a deep breath. "Yes." _All for my brother. _"I'm sure." _For him. _

She narrowed her eyes. _He better freaking appreciate this._

* * *

It was dark by the time Gou set out for Mikoshiba's place. Makoto was the only one who went with her. He helped carry her packs and made sure she didn't walk alone. Gou was glad that he was the only to come with her. She had insisted on it really. She hadn't really wanted to listen to the chatter of the others and they seemed to understand that.

Telling the adults had not been easy. Amakata, poor sweet Amakata, had even tried coming with her but Makoto had told her it was highly unlikely Mikoshiba would have an extra room for her on top of the room Gou would need. The teacher had even offered to sleep on the floor but Gou had told her it was alright. Just the offer by Amakata made Gou feel appreciative. She wasn't about to force the older woman to sleep on the floor.

Goro had barely spoken at all. The stormy look in his face and eyes had said more than enough about his disapproval of the situation.

The walk to Mikoshiba's was mostly quiet. Makoto carried the majority of Gou's bags and Gou trailed behind him. Makoto tried his best to cheer her up, telling her that she could come stay at the Iwantobi lodge as often as she liked. "At least you'll have your own bedroom now," he chuckled but she didn't even crack a smile and he soon quieted.

When they reached the path leading to Mikoshiba's place, Makoto stopped and said he would go talk to Mikoshiba first, to explain the situation before Gou came up. Gou was grateful for that. It would make things a little less uncomfortable for her if Mikoshiba knew what was going on before seeing her. Otherwise he might think she was some sort of crazy stalker or something.

She waited on the low wall that ran along the property as Makoto headed to the door. Unlike the lodges where the Iwatobi team stayed, Mikoshiba's place was more like a cottage with an enclosed yard and stone path. It lacked the porch and the view wasn't as nice, but it had more privacy. That would be nice. She could hide from her brother better if he happened to come by.

She watched as Makoto knocked on the door and a few moments later Mikoshiba answered. The two exchanged a few words and then Mikoshiba held the door open for Makoto come in. Into the house Makoto disappeared and Gou turned back around to the darkened street.

She wondered what the two were saying to each other. Would Mikoshiba be upset about the situation? Would he try and fight it? Maybe he would flat out refuse to do it. What would she do then?

_Get arrested. _She ran her hands over her face. Despite how awkward it was going to be living with a guy her own age she barely knew going to jail did sound a lot worse. She hoped he wouldn't be too resisting to her having to live with him. She disliked the situation already and having to stay there when he very obviously didn't want her there was only going to make it that much worse. _It's going to be so uncomfortable and awkward. What if he acts resentful because I'm invading his space when he doesn't want me around?_

She heard the door open and she looked up, expecting to see Makoto. It wasn't Makoto. Instead several swimmers from Samezuka came out the door. Her eyes widened. _Oh god. _She was sitting in plain view. If they saw her here not only would she never hear the end of it but if they told her brother…

Quickly she looked about herself, searching for something to hide under or behind. There wasn't much in the vicinity. Just some rose bushes directly behind the wall she currently sat on.

She stiffened as she heard them finishing their good-bye. They were walking down the steps. Any second they would see her sitting there.

Without a second thought, Gou flung herself into the rose bushes.

* * *

"You really did a number on yourself, didn't you?" It was the sternest tone Gou had ever heard Makoto use. Actually Gou couldn't think of a time Makoto had _ever _spoken sternly. It had to be the same tone he used on his brother and sister when they had done something stupid and he was scolding them for it. "Now your legs are all scratched up. I told you to wear pants!"

"How was I to know this was going to happen?" Gou protested and then, "Ow," as he touched the hydrogen peroxide soaked cotton ball to her scratched up legs.

"Speaking of that," he said a little crossly, "was it _absolutely _necessary for you to _throw _yourself into those rose bushes like that?"

Gou shrank down a little. "I didn't want them to see me."

"I'm sure there was a better alternative then _throwing_ yourself into a bunch of thorns! Your luggage was still there after all, I'm sure they saw that." He sighed in aggrieve. "Now they're going to think it's mine and it's covered in flowers. What are they going to think of me?"

_They probably think that already because of the way you hang all over Haru, _thought Gou and then another "Ow!" as Makoto pulled out a thorn. Okay, maybe that had been karma.

Mikoshiba entered through the front door. One of Gou's packs was on his shoulder and he lowered it to the floor amongst the rest of her luggage. "I think that's the last of them." He looked over at Makoto hovering over Gou's legs. "You really scratched yourself up there."

Gou rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Great now they were both making comments about it. As if it wasn't embarrassing enough already.

"You don't happen to have any bandages, do you?" asked Makoto. "I don't want these to get infected." Gou made to protest - they were only scratches - but Makoto was having none of it. "These need to be treated properly," he insisted. "If we don't clean the dirt out of them and take proper care of them an infection could develop and we're in a foreign country. That's the last place you want to get an infection. They must be cleaned properly."

Gou settled back against the couch she lay on, effectively chastened. Makoto was in full blown big brother mood. It was actually kind of nice, even though it made her feel like a child.

Mikoshiba brought the bandages and for the next fifteen minutes Makoto meticulously cleaned out every single one of Gou's scratches and placed a bandage over them. Gou was amazed he didn't use up the whole package with how many he put on there.

When he was finally finished administrating first aid, he leaned back into the couch cushions. "Well, that's finally done. Wear pants for the next few days. If Ama-chan sees those she's going to kill me. Or she's going to think you got in a fight with a mountain lion. Either way she won't be very happy about it."

Gou laughed a little. She swung her legs down to the floor, testing if putting her weight on them hurt at all. They still ached but that was simply due to the newness of the wounds.

Makoto looked at his phone. "It's getting late," he said. "Do you feel comfortable here enough for me to leave? If you don't I'll stay longer."

Gou glanced at the hall entryway. Mikoshiba was in the bedroom doing something. Since entering the house she hadn't seen him much. He had been in and out retrieving her luggage and then he had disappeared into the bedroom. "It's fine. You can go."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. Mikoshiba wasn't the type to try anything strange she knew and she would have felt uncomfortable regardless of who the male was she was about to start living with.

That didn't stop Makoto from telling her to call him immediately if anything odd happened as she walked with him to the front door. "Don't hesitate to call if you feel uncomfortable at all," he said while in the open doorway. "Or if you need anything. Anything at all. Are you listening, Gou-chan? I'll have my phone on me at all times. Anything at all, you can call, understand? Don't hesitate to do so."

"Yes, yes, I get it. I'll call if I need anything. You don't need to worry so much."

He frowned. "Well I don't want you to feel uncomfortable. I mean anymore than you already do. I know you're doing this for us so…"

That wasn't entirely true but she didn't correct him.

"Are you sure you're fine?" he asked her for the umpteenth time. "I could stay longer."

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Seriously. Stop worrying so much." She rolled her eyes then smiled softly. "You know," she said after a moment, "you're a really good brother, Makoto."

Makoto blinked in surprise. Then a hint of red crossed his cheeks and he looked away in embarrassment. "I've…I've just had a lot of practice, that's all. Ren and Ran, they can be quite the handful sometimes."

Gou smiled again though it quickly faded. She lowered her eyes. _I wish my brother could be more like that._

She didn't say it aloud but after having been around Haru for so long Makoto was a bit of an expert when it came to reading faces. He placed a hand gently on top of her head. "I'm sure Rin is a terrific older brother. He'll come around one day, you'll see."

Gou nodded. She hoped that was true.

With a wave Makoto finally departed. Gou watched him go down the steps then gently shut the door. Now she was alone. Alone in the house with the man she was expected to live with for the next three months. Gou closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

_Okay…_

* * *

Mikoshiba didn't have any roommates. As the captain of a swimming powerhouse he was privy to some perks and that was one of them. He got to have his own place and didn't have to share with anyone. _Well, until now that is._

It was certainly nice not having anyone else that Gou had to explain the situation to, but…having a place to himself. That meant there was only one bedroom. Only one bedroom in the place. Only one bedroom with one bed.

Gou's stomach had plummeted at first by the news but then she had remembered the couch she had laid on while Makoto had spent so long cleaning her cuts.

_If that's what I have to do then. _There was no way she was going to share a bed with Mikoshiba. Absolutely not. She'd sleep on the couch and be happy about it. She wasn't sure what Mikoshiba thought or wanted, but she wasn't about to ask him. Most guys wouldn't mind a girl sleeping in their bed even if they weren't looking for sex and Mikoshiba was likely no different. It was a conversation she'd rather not have.

Gou got ready for bed right away. Makoto and she hadn't left the Iwatobi lodge until late to begin with and after the medical attention he had paid to her legs it was definitely past bedtime. Luckily for her the bathroom was in the hall and not off the bedroom so she could slip in there without disturbing the Samezuka captain. She was pleasantly surprised to find the bathroom clean and tidy. Very much unlike the bathroom she had shared with Rin when they had been children. That had been a disaster. Rin had typically thrown his towel on the floor and left it there, among other unpleasant things like his dirty underwear on occasion. Gou could still recall the shrieks of dismay she had made when he did that.

Everything on the counter was placed in a neat little row and there was an ample supply of toilet paper. The seat was even down, miracle of all miracles. Gou could only assume Mikoshiba must have grown up with a lot of girls. He had been conditioned to put the seat down even when he lived by himself.

Once she was done changing and brushing her teeth, she took her things back with her to her bags. She felt too weird to leave her stuff in the bathroom among his things. Mikoshiba might see it as her intruding or something. Which she already was but she didn't want to make it worse. She didn't want to start taking over his space without his consent first.

There were some blankets on the couch and she rearranged them to create a make shift bed for herself that wasn't half bad. It wasn't a very big couch but there was enough room for her to stretch out.

Mikoshiba appeared only moments after she had gotten herself situated. He paused at seeing her, as if not expecting her to be there. "What are you doing?"

"Uhhh." Gou thought that was rather obvious. "Going to sleep?"

He tilted his head slightly. "You can use the bed."

She stiffened. She didn't respond but he must have recognized her expression for he followed it with, "I'll sleep on the couch."

Now _that_ gave her pause. "A-Are you sure? I don't want to kick you out of your own bed. I mean it is _your_ house, I should be the one to use the couch."

"Its fine, I insist." He turned to go down the hall without waiting for her response. "Come on."

The bed _did _look a lot more comfortable than the couch. The last time she had been here, a memory she preferred not to recall right at this moment, she hadn't paid much attention to the bed at all, too busy trying to escape unnoticed. Mikoshiba was lucky. His bed was a queen, much bigger than the tiny bed she had been using at the Iwatobi lodge, with three plump pillows. It even had new sheets on it by the look of it. That must have been what Mikoshiba had been doing while Makoto had been treating Gou's cuts.

"A-are you sure about this?" Gou felt rather guilty taking over his bed, _especially_ when it was so nice. She was already intruding on his space, even though that wasn't entirely her fault, she hadn't married herself. "I mean I can sleep on the couch, it's really okay."

"Don't worry, its fine, really. I don't mind sleeping on the couch. I'm not going to make you sleep there." He turned and gestured to one of the bureaus. "There's a few empty drawers for you. I imagine you'll want to wait to unpack your stuff until tomorrow. It's late." He stifled a yawn to emphasize his point.

He was _giving _her drawers now? Giving up his space willingly for her sake? Gou almost couldn't believe it. "Are…are you sure?"

He gave her a look as if he couldn't understand why she kept asking that. "About unpacking? Of course. You're going to be staying here now, right? That's what Tachibana-san made it sound like anyway."

"Uh, yes." _Due to the law, _she wanted to add but decided against it.

"I'm not going to make you keep your stuff packed up in suitcases for the next three months. That'd be terrible." He motioned to the side where there lay an opening to a closet. "Closet space may be an issue though, it's not very big, but we'll figure it out tomorrow. I'm exhausted." She wondered if she had anything to do with that – maybe her luggage had been too heavy for him to handle by himself or maybe he was stressed out about the marriage and didn't want to tell her or maybe – but before she could say anything he turned and headed back to the living room with a slight wave. "Have a good night. Let me know if you need anything."

"A-ah, yes, thank you. Good night."

Well…maybe this wouldn't be as bad as she had initially thought. She definitely felt less wretched than on the walk over here. Mikoshiba was being very accommodating. More than accommodating…He was being quite nice considering the circumstances. He wasn't making her feel unwelcome at all.

From down the hall the living room light went out. Already he was going to sleep. On the couch.

_Should I feel bad? Why do I feel bad? Should I feel bad?_

She shook her head. Even if she did feel bad she got the impression Mikoshiba wouldn't budge on the issue. And she wasn't about to invite him to sleep in the bed _with _her. No, sir.

He had placed new sheets down for her. She could tell by how they felt cool and nice against her bare skin. She enjoyed and appreciated that but still. She wouldn't have minded if he hadn't changed them either. Falling asleep to his scent wouldn't have been half bad. Gou froze in shock. What the heck was that thought? Surely she hadn't thought something like that?

_I'm just...tired. Yes, that's it. Tired._

She closed her eyes, recalling this wasn't the first time she had fallen asleep in this bed, except last time she hadn't fallen asleep alone, and then tried desperately to put such thoughts out of her head.


	5. Worse

**I wasn't sure where I wanted to end this so this turned out to be the longest chapter yet.**

**Also during editing I removed a few of Haru's lines that didn't make it to the final publication last chapter to try and keep him IC but I enjoyed them so held onto them, and then before I knew it I started making up lines from famous movies that Haru would say. I think I'll start calling them Haruisms. **

"My soul has died," said Haru in a dead tone. "Without the water I am nothing. Without the water I cease to be." **- removed line from fic**

"This is my pool! There are many others like it, but this one is mine! Without me, the pool is useless! Without the pool, _I _am useless!" – **Full Metal Jacket quote**

"There's no crying in swimming!" – **A league of their own quote**

**Yea. I need more hobbies.**

* * *

She awoke to the smell of cooking.

For the first few moments, still in the state between dreaming and barely awake, she thought she was back at home. Her mother would be downstairs making breakfast. Even though Gou told her it was fine, she would just have some toast or something, her mother always insisted on making something for her. Every morning she did this. She would wake up early to make breakfast and pack Gou's lunch. Always she thought of others before herself. She had always been like that. Especially after Gou's father died.

It wasn't until Gou opened her eyes fully and saw her alien surroundings that she remembered she wasn't at home. Far from it. On the other side of the world. Mikoshiba's place. She remembered now. She wasn't at home and her mother wasn't here. But somehow the smell of cooking had still remained.

She sat up and blinked owlishly down the hallway. The cooking smell was definitely emitting from inside the house. But who in god's name was cooking?

Curiosity won out over tiredness and Gou got out of bed. Yawning and rubbing at an eye, she walking into the living room. The couch was empty save for a pillow and the blankets lying distorted and crinkled. So Mikoshiba was awake too. He couldn't be the one who…

To the left of her the kitchen lights were on and Gou followed her nose into there. In the doorway she stopped and leaned against the frame. She rubbed hazily at her eye again. Could she still be dreaming?

Mikoshiba was in the kitchen. Cooking. A spatula was in his hand and on the stove in front of him lay a pot and pan, the place where the heavenly scent was originating. It only took him half a second to notice her. "Good morning!"

It took her a moment to process what she was seeing in order to generate a proper response. "G-good morning." Unable to help herself, she stepped forward, wanting to see what he was making. Ham and poached eggs. She stared at the food. When was the last time she had eaten stuff like this? At the Iwatobi lodges they normally ate mackerel or hot dogs or pizza, even for breakfast. This food looked like five star cuisine compared to the fodder she had been forced to eat the last few days.

"Do you want some?"

"Huh?" She couldn't possibly have heard him right. Had he seen her desiring eyes when she had been staring?

Mikoshiba's expression was open and friendly, though he wasn't really smiling. "Are you hungry?" he asked her. "I could make you some."

"Umm…" If she went back to the Iwantobi lodge she would be forced to eat mackerel again or something weird like ice cream covered mackerel or mackerel covered pizza. The thought alone made her want to vomit. "A-are you sure? I don't want to eat all your food b-but…if you don't mind…"

Mikoshiba smiled. A full smile that lit up his whole face. "I wouldn't offer if it wasn't fine."

She settled at the small table close to the entrance of the kitchen next to the fridge. She felt it would be rude if she went into the living room after he had just offered to cook for her, and outside of the coffee table in the living room this was the closest thing Mikoshiba had to a dining table. While his place was a decent size it did lack a dining room.

On the wall next to her was a tack board. Only one paper was tacked there and Gou found her eyes drawn to it. The program schedule for the Samezuka swim team. Her eyes trailed down to today's date. The Juraj Temple. That's where Samezuka was going. That was good. Iwatobi had the pool for practice today. She wouldn't be stuck in Mikoshiba's hair all day. Even if she had to come here every night at least they would have their days separate.

"Did you sleep well?"

Mikoshiba's voice pulled her away from the study of his swim team's schedule. "Oh, yes, thank you." _Too _good actually. That bed. It had to be the bed. It was too comfortable. She had slept like a baby.

She thought about asking him if he slept well in return but decided against it. It might just dig in the fact he was stuck on the couch since she had taken over his bed. That wouldn't be fair. She wondered if he regretted his decision to let her take the bed.

"You can unpack your things whenever you feel like it," he continued. "Your packs are still in the living room, aren't they?"

"Yes." Gou dragged out the last syllable as she looked behind herself to where her bags still sat where he had placed them last night. There were so many of them she didn't look forward to unpacking. Oh, well, least she hadn't packed as bad as Amakata. If she had they would have needed to rent a truck to transport all her stuff last night. "I'll do it later this evening if that's alright. We have pool practice today."

"That's fine. Take your time, no rush."

When Mikoshiba set the plate down before her a few moments later Gou stared at it. Poached eggs, ham, and wheat toast. He even had orange juice. _Have I died and just not realized it? _Iwatobi had been drinking the sugariest soft drinks that were probably known to man. Gou was honestly amazed the things were legal. They always tended to make her feel a little ill after she drank one. It was no wonder Nagisa was such a spazz drinking that stuff all day.

"Is it alright?" Gou raised her gaze to find Mikoshiba staring at her over the two plates. He actually sounded hesitant.

She waved her hands frantically. "No, no, it's—it's great! I was just…" _Thinking about sugary softdrinks that should be illegal._ "W-well it doesn't you."

He smiled at her then set to eating his own food. Gou picked up her fork and held it stiffly in her fist like she were about to do battle with it. The food looked nice but how it would taste? She was almost scared to find out. Forcibly she stabbed into a piece of the egg. She hesitated then compelled herself to place the food in her mouth.

_Oh god. _She had died. She was dead. She was dead and she was in heaven. Heaven where the food was good and didn't taste like grease or fake sugar or—or _mackerel_. She set on the food like a starving hound on a fox. "D-do you always eat like this?" she asked around bites. "All the time?"

"Of course." Mikoshiba leaned back against the wall. He was sitting sideways rather than towards her. A good thing considering his long legs and the lack of space under the tiny table. His feet would have practically been in her lap if he sat the normal way. "Swimmers have to eat healthy. If they don't it affects their performance."

Gou paused with a piece of ham halfway to her mouth. All the bad stuff the Iwatobi boys ate on a pretty much daily basis flashed through her mind. If they were doing that…could it be affecting their performance negatively? Gou had never considered something like that before.

"Oh really?" The ham finished its journey to her mouth and she chewed blissfully. The Iwatobi boys were useless when it came to information about good diets. But Mikoshiba, he sounded like he had a better handle on good eating habits. "What…what sort of foods are bad?"

His gaze lifted to the ceiling in what must have been thought. "Anything fatty. Pies and sausage rolls for example. White breads and pasta. Hot dogs—" Gou flinched. "Fried chicken. That sort of thing. Saturated fats can slow performance along with trans fat and hydrogenated oils."

"Uh-huh," Gou said slowly. She was trying desperately to put all of that memory, although she had no clue what trans fat and hydrogenated oils were. "What are the sorts of foods you stick to then as a competitive swimmer?"

"Carbohydrates," he answered without hesitation, warming up to the subject. "That's the most important nutrient. It's the easiest way to get the energy you need to move and swim faster. Complex carbohydrates are the best source because they release slowly throughout the day. Simple carbohydrates are good too but they only give you a quick energy burst."

"What foods are complex carbohydrates?"

"Rice, cereal, pasta, noodles, beans. That sort of thing. Even popcorn."

Gou frowned. "What about this then?" She held up her fork with a piece of ham stuck to it. "This isn't a carbohydrate right?"

He shook his head. "That's for protein. Swimmers need that too. It helps repair your body after training and helps your muscles get stronger. The meat just need to be lean and low in fat."

_So meat is good so long as it isn't fatty meat. Check. _"What meats are a lean meat?"

"Poultry without the skin. Fish."

Oh good_. _If Haru couldn't eat mackerel he'd have a nervous breakdown.

"Steamed or roasted meat rather than deep fried," Mikoshiba continued. "Vegetables of any kind are good too, and fruit. They're good for snacks."

"Snacks," muttered Gou. She was going to have a hard time remembering all of this to write in her notebook later. _Who knew eating was so complicated._

There was a ringing sound and Mikoshiba pulled out his phone. He pushed a few buttons, looking at the screen. "The others are ready. We're going to that temple today."

"Uh hum," Gou hummed, her eye sneaking over to the calendar.

Mikoshiba stood and straightened his shirt, and it suddenly occurred to Gou that she was still in pajamas and had been the entire time. Her cheeks reddened a little. The thought of getting dressed had never even occurred to her. Then again he had seen her in her sleeping clothes last night too so it wasn't that big of a deal. _It's not like I can exactly hide from him anyway considering we have to live together._ They would be seeing each other in their sleeping clothes for the next three months so might as well get used to it.

Mikoshiba picked up the two dirty plates and set them in the sink. "Lock the door when you leave, would you," he said. "When you're on your way back here text me so I can unlock the door for you if need be."

"Ah, o-okay." That was weird. They were talking like a married couple discussing and planning their day. Gou mentally smacked herself. Roommates! That's what they were. _Just roommates! Not…not that!_

With his usual wave Mikoshiba departed, leaving Gou alone in the house. That felt weird too. Being in his house without him there, like a guest who remained at their host's house when the host wasn't there. Needing to give herself something to do, she got up and then with much heaving and grunting succeeded in dragging one of her packs into the bedroom. It was the one with the majority of her clothes. She unpacked it, placing her clothes into the free drawers Mikoshiba had given her.

Her eyes roved over the bureaus, counting the drawers. Even. They were even. The amount of drawers he had and the ones he had given her. He had divided them evenly.

"_When you're married you're supposed to do everything by halves." Her mother's voice long ago as she brushes Gou's hair. _

"_But why halves?"_

"_Because." Her mother strokes her hair. "When you're married everything you own becomes half of his, and everything he owns is half of yours. That way, when you combine them together, you get a whole."_

Gou shook her head. She really didn't want to think about that sort of stuff right now. She doubted that was the sort of advice her mother would be giving her right now if she found out about Gou's current…situation.

She looked down at the pearl ring on her hand. Thinking about her mother and the words she had spoken so softly made Gou ache. Maybe it was true. Maybe you did give away half of yourself when you got married. When Gou's father had died, did that mean her mother had lost half of herself as well?

Gou shook her head, pressing her palms to her temples. She really didn't want to think about this anymore.

She closed the drawer, her unpacking finished for the time, and got ready to head over to the Iwatobi lodges.

* * *

"Alright!" Gou brandished her notebook like it was the latest commandment and she was about to divulge it to the masses. "I have news for everyone!"

Whenever Gou got out her notebook the boys knew it was serious. Therefore they stopped whatever they were discussing to pay her rapt attention. Gou thought this was a good thing. If she didn't have anything to present them with they'd probably pepper her with questions about Mikoshiba and staying over at his place. Questions she didn't want to answer.

"It has come to my attention that what we have been eating, _especially_ in these last few days, are incredibly unhealthy," she began, trying to sound as official as possible. "These unhealthy foods are," she paused to flip open her notebook, "affecting our performance and making our swim times slower," she read off. "Because of this knowledge I propose," she closed her notebook with a smart slap, "that we initiate an eating regiment from this day forward!"

She was not met with the enthusiasm she expected. The boys simply stared at her for a long moment. "An eating regiment?" Nagisa asked at last.

"She means a diet," said Rei.

There was a sharp intake of breath. "A-a diet?" Makoto's mouth was twitching. "Do we really need something like that? None of us are overweight I don't think..."

Nagisa was poking his toned stomach experimentally.

"It isn't a diet to lose weight!" Gou slammed her hands down on the table. "This is to make sure we give our best performance out there and aren't slowing ourselves down! If our bodies aren't in the best shape then we have no chance of winning! And if we don't win than our club is doomed to have no accomplishments and we won't be able to afford anything! In order to make sure we win, we must make sure we are in the best shape possible!" She dug into her notebook. "Here. I wrote up a chart for everyone. These will be the planned meals for the next few weeks."

She handed them out to each boy and to Coach Sasabe, who, after a moment of reading over it, nodded. "This is better. Definitely better than those poisonous seawater drinks you boys have been drinking. I definitely agree those need to go." He frowned down at the paper in his hand. "I don't see any pizza on here though."

Gou stiffened. "T-that's because we won't be eating pizza…It isn't good for you." She waited for the outburst, which Goro was more than willing to give.

"N-no pizza?!" He stared at her like she had just told him the rudest phrase ever conceived. "How could you say no pizza?! Pizza contains every food group on the food pyramid! How could that possibly be unhealthy?!"

"How does it contain every food group?" asked Rei wonderingly. "Pizza doesn't have fruit or vegetables."

"Pineapple!" Goro insisted. "And spinach! There's your fruit and vegetables right there! Any food group you can possibly think of can be found on pizza, I'm telling you!"

"No hot dogs?!" Nagisa cried. "Why can't we eat hot dogs?!"

"They're bad for you!" said Gou.

"How are they _bad_? They're delicious!"

"Because," said Gou, "they contain—" She paused to flip open her notebook again. "They contain trans fat and hydrogenated oils. That's why they're bad for you!" She still had no idea what those were, or if they were even in hot dogs, but she doubted Nagisa would either.

"Mackerel." Haru's monotone cut through the protests. "Mackerel is on here."

"Yes, it's a lean meat. It's healthy so we can have it."

Haru didn't say anything in return but he seemed to be smiling softly. Good. At least _one _person was relatively happy about this.

"What about popsicles?" asked Makoto. From anyone else it might have seemed like a strange question but Gou had seen on multiple occasions Makoto split his popsicles with Haru without Haru ever having to say a word. It was like the little special thing they did.

"_When you're married you each get half."_

Gou's mother's voice again. Maybe it should have been Haru and Makoto to get married that night. The situation would likely be a lot easier than what it was currently. The two were pretty much married as is.

"Popsicles are okay but _only _oncea week," Gou stressed. "No more."

Makoto didn't look too happy about that but he accepted it without a fight.

"Whose going to cook this menu?" asked Rei, always the one to ask the important questions.

Gou grimaced. She hadn't thought about that. Haru was a good cook but she knew his response would likely follow along the lines of 'it's too much effort' or 'I only cook free' if she asked him to do it. "Coach Sasabe?" she offered hesitantly after a moment.

"Absolutely not!" he flared. "I'm not a chef!"

"You cook pizza all the time!"

"Yes, I cook _pizza _all the time! Not the rest of this stuff! If I'm going to cook then this whole menu will be pizza! Pizza—" He looked at the paper. "Pizza fruit, yogurt pizza, pizza salad, mackerel pizza, egg pizza, pizza soup! That's what we'll be having!"

Gou sighed heavily. This was more taxing than she had anticipated. They were being more resistant to the idea of healthy eating than she had figured. Faintly she wondered if Mikoshiba's swim team followed the same diet regiment he did. On one hand she could see him doing it as the captain but on the other she could see him doing it as his own thing. He took swimming so seriously after all. She'd have to ask her brother next time he saw him.

"My, my it's so loud in here." Amakata stepped into the room, dabbing a towel delicately at her wet hair. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Gou's torturing us," said Nagisa.

"I-I am not! Eating healthy is a good thing! You should be thanking me!"

"Eating healthy?" Amakata sidled up to Rei to look over the paper. "Oh, this is a nice selection."

"Huh?!" Goro stared at her as if she had grown a second head.

The teacher slid the paper out of Rei's hands to look over it better. "Oh yes, this is pretty good. Very healthy. Did you make this, Gou-chan?"

"Uh, y-yes. I did." Gou was a little flattered to tell the truth. She had thrown it together after listening to Mikoshiba and after a little bit of research on her own, but she had thought it was sloppy at best. Most of the stuff she had taken a wild stab at it. "None of us can make it though. None of us are very uhhh…cooking inclined."

Amakata spent a few more moments looking over the sheet. "I can make this easy," she said. "In fact this is pretty close to the diet I used to use when I was a swimsuit mod—uhhhh working in the swimsuit industry." Her smile was almost pained. "This shouldn't be hard at all."

Gou's eyes widened. Amakata. Why had she not thought of her before? She had sampled a few of Amakata's dishes in the past and all of them had been good. Amakata was the perfect candidate. "A-are you sure, Ama-chan?" asked Gou. "You're cooking has always been delicious but I know that's a lot of responsibility."

"Oh, it won't be that bad." Amakata waved her hand. "I won't be doing much anyway when you guys are busy swimming or going on tours. This will be a great way to fill my day. I do enjoy cooking."

"That's not really fair, is it?" Goro's arms were crossed. "Asking you to cook all the time."

"Well, not _all _the time." Amakata laughed. "We can go out on occasion and I'm sure you'll be willing to help sometimes." She gave him her sweetest smile.

Goro blinked. "Uhh, y-yes. O-of course." He coughed and suddenly seemed to find the wall opposite Amakata very interesting.

Gou stared at the two. _Is she hitting on him?_

"Oh," said Amakata, as if she had just remembered something. "We got a new schedule by the way. One of the hosts dropped it off this morning."

Gou's brow furrowed. "A new schedule?"

"For the program." Amakata dug a piece of folded paper out of her pocked and handed it to Gou. "I figured you'd want to hold onto it, Gou-chan."

Gou nodded, her attention already focused on the paper she was unfolding. Their schedule _had _been changed. Their swim days were still the same but everything else was different. All the events the host country were throwing that they had to attend had changed. That was odd. Why had they suddenly done that without consulting Iwatobi first?_ Maybe they had some schools they over looked and they're trying to fit them in now. _Oh, well. Not much she could do about it. She tucked it into her notebook.

"I-it's time to go!" Goro hollered. "Let's get a move on! The pool isn't going to wait all day!"

He face was oddly red as they marched outside.

* * *

It was late by the time Gou left the Iwatobi lodges. She had spent most of the day at the pool with the boys, timing them and making notes, but by early afternoon she had left the pool to go shopping with Amakata. The whole food stock of the house had to be redone and Amakata had taken the time while they were practicing to go through everything and throw out anything unhealthy.

The shopping trip took longer than Gou wanted to admit or think about it. It would have taken long regardless but Amakata tended to get excited when she found food she liked or new food she had never heard of to try. Food shopping with Amakata was equivalent to accompanying a toddler through a candy store. She got distracted constantly and would often squeal and disappear down some aisle, leaving Gou racing to catch up with her.

By the time they got home with all the groceries and put them away, Gou was exhausted and they still had the cooking to do. Amakata put Gou on chopping duty which wouldn't have taken so long except she was too tired to cut with any sort of speed.

The boys got back around sunset, tired but pumped after their practice, and Gou had to spend the next hour listening to them continually complaining they were hungry and where was the food. At one point she found Nagisa trying to scarf down some sweet bread he had snuck in from somewhere, and she chased him around the house batting him with her notebook and yelling at him. To her surprise it was actually Haru who intervened and took away the sweet bread, throwing it out the window while saying something about eating mackerel because it was a lean meat and healthy. _Using my words. _Gou's eyebrow ticked.

When Amakata finally served up the food, everyone made comments about how long it had taken. However when they finally did begin to eat, nobody complained. Amakata had made roasted chicken with rosemary and brown rice. And it was delicious. Gou almost couldn't believe it.

"You have a wonderful gift, Ama-chan!" Nagisa proclaimed and Amakata tried to wave it off like it was nothing, even though she was clearly flattered.

Everyone had only nice things to say after that and they all ate so much that there were no leftovers. Once they were done eating, the boys lounged about in food comas like zombies and Gou felt pretty comfortable believing that they would stick with the food regiment now. If Amakata kept making meals like that one anyway.

So it was late by the time Gou set out for Mikoshiba's. Makoto had offered to walk her but she had refused. If she was going to walk every night she didn't want to have to wait for an escort every time. It wasn't far and she wanted to get used to walking it by herself. Makoto was too full to offer much protest. "Text me when you get there so I know you're safe," he had said.

Gou had rolled her eyes in response but she did appreciate his care.

She was halfway to Mikoshiba's before she remembered she was supposed to text him too. She pulled out her ugly grey phone and punched in the message letting him know she was on her way. It was hardly a moment later when she received a response back.

'K.'

She frowned down at bright screen with its short message. Well, that must mean he was at the house and it was unlocked. Otherwise she hoped he would have sent her something a little longer. _Something longer _either_ way._

When she opened the door, it was unlocked like she had assumed and he was home too. "Yo." He was sitting at the tiny table in the kitchen, a direct line of sight from the front door, and he waved a hand in greeting. "How was the pool?"

"Alright." Gou dropped her bag and let out a grateful sigh to have the thing off her shoulder, feeling like she could finally relax after a very long day. Without even thinking about it she approached him. "How was the temple?"

"Large," said Mikoshiba. He had turned back around and was frowning down at some paper lying on the table in front of him. "And violent. I think the guide said they beheaded around one hundred odd people there."

"Oh." Gou grimaced. "Isn't that…pleasant." She leaned over slightly to see what he was looking at. "What's that?"

"I got a letter."

"A letter?"

"From the government."

"The government?" That couldn't be good. _Anything _that involved the government here had been bad news. '_The drinking age is sixteen so feel free to get smashed! You got married while drunk and dumb, but we won't let you get a divorce! You got married by mistake and we won't let you get a divorce, but now you also have to live together!' _The list just went on and on.

Mikoshiba held up the paper for her to look at better. "It's a congratulatory letter."

_A congratulatory letter? _Her eyes roved over it. A congratulatory letter on their marriage. "Oh." She frowned at it in distaste. "How nice of them."

Mikoshiba chuckled. "Should we frame it?" he asked. "We can hang it up somewhere." Gou's panicked stare was all the answer she could muster and he quickly held up his hands. "I was kidding, only kidding." He looked at the paper with a strange expression. "I'll hide it somewhere."

_Or throw it out_, thought Gou but couldn't bring herself to say it. For all she knew Mikoshiba planned on keeping the documents as a souvenir. Something to show his kids when he was older maybe. _'See the stupid mistakes Daddy made when he was a teenager! Don't drink alcohol, kids! It will be the biggest mistake of your life because the next morning you might wake up and discover you got married to a near total stranger!'_

Well, if that's what he wanted to do he could go ahead. Personally Gou didn't want to keep anything to remind herself of this. Once they were back in Japan and the divorce had been performed she would wipe it from her mind and pretend it had never happened.

"I'm exhausted," she stated. "I'll unpack tomorrow if that's okay. We have the aquarium tomorrow that I have to be up early for it."

"Really?" Mikoshiba asked the word in a tone that made Gou pause. He was frowning slightly. "We have the aquarium tomorrow too."

She narrowed an eye and then leaned to the side to look past Mikoshiba at the schedule attached to the board. Aquarium was printed on the square marked for tomorrow. "Huh, so you are." It wasn't the first time their two schools had been matched up but still. It was a little strange. She shook her head as if clearing away flies. "I'm going to bed."

"Have a good night," said Mikoshiba.

Good night Gou tried to say but it was swallowed by the massive yawn she gave instead.

* * *

_This is so awkward._

She stood beside the Iwatobi boys in front of the aquarium. Next to her the four were fidgeting relentlessly. Nagisa was hyper – maybe he had found one of those sugar infused saltwater drinks that Amakata had missed – and Haru was twitching like a disjointed insect. Makoto was trying his best to keep him calm, muttering they should have used one of the sedatives he had left over from the flight to keep Haru in check before they had left the lodge. Having Haru around the aquarium was a bad idea. So much water…

Gou tried her best to ignore them. Her mind was on other things besides their strange quirks. She hadn't said much to Mikoshiba before leaving this morning. She had purposely left early; partly to avoid an uncomfortable situation, partly because she wouldn't want her brother to see her walking anywhere with Mikoshiba (_especially _out of Mikoshiba's own house), and partly because she had wanted to make sure the boys were sticking with the food regiment. They had been thankfully, although it wouldn't have surprised her if Nagisa was keeping a stock of bad things under his bed. She would have to check when they got back later.

As it were they were waiting on the Samezuka swim team to show up. Considering the large amount of students they had compared to Iwatobi it was no surprise that they would take much longer to arrive than they. Still the time was ticking by incredibly slowly and they were starting to get impatient.

Nagisa yawned and stretched. "Why isn't your husband here yet, Gou-chan?"

She straightened like she had just been electrocuted. "Don't call him that!"

"But that's what he is, isn't he?" Nagisa blinked his wide guileless eyes. "Do you not refer to him like that when you're alone together?"

Gou's face was so red she felt like all her blood had vacated to there. "Nagisa," Makoto said lowly in warning.

"Sorry, sorry." He waved his hand. "I know Gou-chan doesn't want us talking about her husband-chan."

Gou fought the urge to hit her head against something hard. Her hand tightened into a fist. _Nagisa, I swear!_

As if on que the Samezuka swim team made their appearances at that very second and frantically Gou maneuvered herself around a tree before they saw her reddened face. If her brother saw her he might think Haru had said something inappropriate rather than the actual situation. _Which is much, much worse._

"Good morning, Tachibana-san!" Gou heard Mikoshiba greet Makoto from behind her. For some reason hearing his voice only made her face heat up even more. _It's because of Nagisa! He just _had _to say that stuff about him being my husband! _Oh god, now her face was so hot she felt like she was sweating.

"Good morning, Captain Mikoshiba," Makoto returned pleasantly. "Glad to see you guys made it."

Mikoshiba made a noise of confirmation. "Sorry to keep you waiting." There was a second of silence and Gou swore she could feel his eyes on her from the thin tree she was hiding behind. "Good morning, Gou-kun."

She stiffened rigidly. Did he _have _to talk to her right now?! She knew he was just trying to act normal and if he didn't say anything to her that'd be unusual but still. She would have preferred if he hadn't talked to her _right _this second. "G-good morning," she forced out.

"Hmmm," he said from behind her. "Are you alright?"

"I-I'm fine!" she squeaked. "And don't use Gou and kun together!"

Their guide for the aquarium approached them and thankfully the attention was taken off Gou. She still waited for the Samezuka team to go ahead of them before entering the aquarium. Nagisa was laughing at her and she stomped her foot at him. "You are the worst!"

Nagisa ran away laughing and Rei chased him, scolding him for running inside a building with lots of glass.

"So the fun begins," Makoto muttered under his breath. His hand shot out and snagged onto the back of Haru's shirt, pulling the dark haired teen up short and nearly choking him as Haru tried to make a beeline for one of the nearby tanks. Ahead of them Nagisa was already bouncing and tugging on Rei, pointing at various things he wanted to see. And ahead of them somewhere in that tangled mob of Samezuka students was Mikoshiba and Gou's brother.

Gou took a deep breath. "No kidding."

* * *

Gou wasn't sure what made the worst impression. The second day they had been here when the boys had tried swimming while hung over or today. Haru kept trying to disrobe and climb into tanks. Makoto had jumped on him to restrain him more times than Gou could recall and even Nagisa and Rei had had to detour him from taking his clothes off once or twice. At the start the guides had calmly asked that Haru control himself and refrain from making a spectacle, but after a while their patience had grown thin and they threatened to throw them out if it continued. _That _at least had broken through to Haru and the teen had finally restored some semblance of control to himself. Apparently getting kicked out was worse than not being able to swim so he refrained from performing another strip tease in the middle of the aquarium. Gou was really glad there were no kids around to see that.

With Haru behaving himself, the others were finally able to enjoy themselves more and take in the sights. They were given pretty much free reign of the aquarium and it was large enough they could span out and not run into each other much. Gou saw Rin a few times with the boy Nitori and she sidled up to him when he was watching some video on grey white sharks or something on a screen. Ever since Rin had been little he had liked sharks. Gou kind of got the impression he felt some sort of kinship with the beasts for some reason.

"Haru stop trying to climb into tanks?" he asked her without looking up from the video of a grey white shark grappling with seagulls over some floating corpse of a mammal.

"For now," muttered Gou. "They threatened to kick him out if he didn't stop."

Rin made a 'keh' sound. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"Wouldn't be the first time he's gotten kicked out or threatened to be kicked out?"

Rin considered that for a moment. "Both," he said.

She saw Mikoshiba a few times too but he was busy with his teammates so she didn't bother him. It was a calm atmosphere rather than a frantic one like she had experienced when first encountering Mikoshiba in the museum. So long as they acted normally Rin shouldn't suspect anything and acting normally meant they were mostly involved with the teammates rather than each other so Gou was satisfied to leave things as they were.

By the time they started filing out of the aquarium in preparation to leave it was nearly sunset. Rei and Nagisa had come out with Gou but Haru and Makoto disappeared sometime ago, something about Haru wanting to see the mackerel again. Hopefully they would be ushered out with the rest of the students. The aquarium was closing soon.

Gou took a seat on the steps outside to rest her tired feet as she waited for the others. Her heels ached from all the walking and standing they had done today. She was ready to go home and stretch out on a couch and not move the rest of the night.

"Almost out of here." She looked up to find Mikoshiba settling on the step next to her. "You look tired."

She grunted. There was enough distance in between them that she didn't feel like he was invading her personal space and they were protected from view on either side by raised concrete squares filled with flowers so she only leaned back slightly to double check that Rin wasn't scouting around for her.

"Still waiting on a few people?"

"A few stragglers, yeah."

She made a small sound of amusement. "Us too. Haru and Makoto disappeared somewhere."

Mikoshiba frowned at the mention of those names. "What was going on with Nanase-kun today anyway? Does he normally try to get naked in public? I vaguely recall he tried to do the same thing at the Jurrian."

Gou tried to stifle her laugh. She could still remember when Haru had tried to get into the punch bowl at the bar too. At least there were a few things she could remember from that night. "He just likes water," she said. "_A lot. _Maybe even sexually."

"Aquaphilia."

She blinked at him. "Sorry?"

"Aquaphilia," Mikoshiba repeated. "That's when you're sexually attracted to water."

"Oh." Her brow furrowed. "I…I can't believe they actually have a word for it. A-and how do you know something like that?"

He was the one who laughed this time. "Trust me, when you've been in competitive swimming as long as I have you'd know it too. You'll run into one or two like that."

Gou grimaced. Now that she really didn't need to know. Haru was one thing but she didn't like to imagine what someone who actually _did _have aquaphilia would try to do when at an aquarium.

Someone called out Mikoshiba's name. "Sounds like we're ready." He stood. "See you at the house."

She grunted back in response and watched him walk away. Funny, Iwatobi managed to always get there before Samezuka when they had events planned together but somehow Samezuka always managed to leave first.

With Samezuka leaving, Nagisa and Rei moved over to where Gou was. "I can't get in touch with Haru-chan," Nagisa complained. His pink phone was in his hand.

"I have tried Makoto-sempai as well," said Rei, peering at his purple one. "Neither one have responded."

"Maybe they got lost," said Gou. She hoped that's what it was and that Haru hadn't decided to try and get into the mackerel tank again and manage to not only get himself but Makoto arrested as well. That was the last thing they needed, not to mention Amakata and Goro. Goro would probably lose it if the boys got arrested on top of all the other trouble the teens had caused the two adults in the short time they had been in this country.

Nagisa fell back on the concrete. "I'm so tired," he moaned.

That was no surprise. He had been running around like a maniac in the aquarium all day. Although Gou was tired too. Sighing she took out her phone and tried Makoto too.

* * *

The aquarium was past closed when Haru and Makoto finally showed up. "Haru really likes the mackerel," Makoto said as way of explanation with a grimace. "We never even realized the aquarium had closed and none of the guides knew we were there so no one came over to tell us."

The janitor had been the one to finally spot them and shoo them out.

By the time they had walked back to the Iwatobi lodges and eaten, Gou was too exhausted to make her way over to Mikoshiba's. "One night couldn't hurt, right?" she asked Rei. "We can just say we're having a sleep over."

Rei frowned that frown of his. "I was going to say one night couldn't hurt," he replied, "but saying you're having a sleep over with four males and no other females might raise some eyebrows, especially considering the fact that you're married."

He did have a point there, although Gou wished he had phrased it differently and left out the married bit. She texted Mikoshiba to let him know and was not surprised when he simply responded with an 'alright'. Maybe he was just one of those people who hated text messaging. She had seen him spend so much time on that phone maybe he tried to do it as little as possible. _Well, at least he'll be able to sleep in his own bed. I'm sure he'll be grateful for that for a night._

"What's on the schedule for tomorrow, Gou?" asked Makoto right as they were getting ready to go to bed.

Gou was forced to go get her notebook and pull out the paper to check. She hadn't memorized the new one since their hosts had changed it on them. "Clam hunting," she said with some surprise.

"Clam hunting?"

"And conch hunting," she finished. "Apparently the ancestors of this country used to hunt and eat them so it's part of their culture."

"I cannot decide whether that is going to be fun or utterly horrible," Rei voiced his opinion on the matter.

_No kidding. _Gou couldn't either.

Amakata loaned some clothes for Gou to use for the night and Gou settled in. Her last thought before she fell asleep was wondering what Samezuka was doing tomorrow and if Mikoshiba would enjoy not having her around for the night.

* * *

Early morning found them seated on a bench, dressed in light clothing with their bathing suits underneath and sandals on their feet. In front of them two buses were churring softly. The clam and conch hunting was further away than any of the past activities had been so they would have to bus to the location.

"Two busses?" Makoto had questioned when they had first arrived.

"Must be a big school joining us," said Rei and Gou had been too tired to notice the worrying glance Makoto sent her way.

Gou yawned into her hand, wishing these activities would start later in the day. You were supposed to sleep in as much as possible for summer, right? The host country forcing them to get up early was a travesty and grossly unfair.

She hadn't slept well last night either. She had tossed and turned a lot, and had woken up several times throughout the night. Mikoshiba's bed had cursed her. It was much more comfortable than the bed at the Iwatobi lodge. Or maybe her subconscious was stressed out by changing her sleeping surroundings so often. That had to be it, it was the only logical explanation behind it.

"The other school is here," said Haru and everyone turned to look.

Gou dully tilted her head that way to see who it was. Her eyes widened. Before she had even realized it she was on her feet.

"Samezuka," Makoto said quietly.

_It couldn't be. _Gou couldn't speak. She couldn't even form words. Again?! They had been partnered with Samezuka again?! _Why! _She wanted to bang her head into the metal pole beside her. _Why! Why does this keep happening?!_

By the look on his face as he walked up, Mikoshiba had not been expecting it either. "Uh, good morning." His greeting lacked the exuberance he usually greeted them with. He glanced at Gou and Makoto in confusion.

"G-good morning," Makoto managed to utter.

Gou felt like she couldn't breathe. Maybe she would pass out. Maybe she would pass out and then she wouldn't have to deal with this. Boy, that would be nice.

"I-I'm sure it's coincidence," said Makoto, that awkward smile on his face. "I mean it's not unusual for our two schools to get paired up. I'm sure it's because our schools are so close to each other back in Japan that they're doing this."

Mikoshiba just looked at him.

Gou worried her hands together. No, it would be fine. It _had _to be fine. They had gotten through the museum and the aquarium without incident. This shouldn't be any different. So long as they mostly ignored each other and stayed with their own swim teams everything would be fine! _Simple as that._

With a deep breath, Gou managed to calm herself. Yes, so long as they conducted themselves in the same manner they had been there shouldn't be any reason to worry. Even if it was _infuriating _that they kept getting paired together it was fine. Completely fine.

Their guides for the day were already calling for everyone's attention. "Okay!" The woman clapped her hands together cheerfully. "Who is in charge of these two groups?"

Makoto and Mikoshiba's hands went into the air immediately. Gou, with a bit of hesitation, slowly followed suit. She was the manager after all. If that didn't put her in some sort of position where she was in charge she didn't know what would.

The woman's gaze raked over the three of them. "Excellent! We'll have you three sit in the front of the first bus!" She pointed at Makoto. "You can be on the right side!" She pointed to Gou and Mikoshiba next. "And you two can be on the left!" The woman was positively beaming.

Gou's mouth dropped. No. No. It couldn't be. Why she had raised her hand?! She was so dumb! _Oh god. _She swayed on her feet and Mikoshiba's hand shot out, grabbing her upper arm and holding her steady. He gaze the host a dazzling smile. "Alright, miss, understood!"

The woman moved on to the rest of the people there, assigning them seats. With the woman's attention elsewhere, Mikoshiba's smile faded, his face smoothing to a blank state that was a little unhappy. Next to him Makoto looked like he had gotten punched in the stomach again and even Nagisa's mouth was sagging downwards.

Mikoshiba's hand was still on her arm but Gou hardly noticed. She buried her face in her hands, the top -of her head coming to rest against Mikoshiba's chest. She didn't notice that either.

_This cannot possibly get any worse…_

* * *

**A big thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited! You guys are amazing!**

**I had a few questions from reviewers so I'll try and answer them here:**

**Guest - There will definitely be chapters from Mikoshiba's view point in the future. I definitely want to do chapters from his PoV where we'll get to see his feelings spelled out more. Right now it just feels too early but they will be coming!**

**Darksknight - Yes, please let me know about typos or grammar mistakes or weird things like words missing! I type these on my laptop without a mouse so sometimes when I'm editing weird things will occur that I don't notice. I know there's a few odd missing letters in past chapters.  
**


	6. Schedule

**It has been a crazy week (both good and HORRIBLE) and this chapter should be renamed to Uncooperative because that's what it was. It also turned out a lot longer than I expected so it took longer to get out. Plus I kept getting distracted by Tumblr and laughing and then slapping myself to stop laughing. What have I fallen into?  
**

**Here have a Haruism:**

"Say hello to my little friend!" **- Haru in a smut fic, Scarface (I'm so sorry *shot*)**

* * *

Again. It was happening was like this was some sort of poorly planned manga or terribly written fanfiction. Or maybe a horror movie. Yes, definitely a horror movie.

Gou twisted in the uncomfortable seat, a scowl on her face. She was glad the hosts had sat her and Mikoshiba on the front most seat of the bus, leaving Rei and Nagisa behind them and the bus driver, who likely didn't speak English, in front. Across the aisle from them was Makoto and Haru. And, miracle of all miracles, Rin had been placed on the second bus. He had been protesting about it as Gou had been entering of her own bus, though whether it was because Rin didn't like the fact Gou and Mikoshiba had been paired together and wanted to watch Mikoshiba like a hawk to make sure he didn't try anything or because he wanted to glare at Haru like a hawk and send out waves of silent challenge Gou wasn't sure. Maybe it was a bit of both.

Regardless, the way they were seated provided the perfect set up for Gou and Mikoshiba to yell discreetly at each other. "_Why _does this keep happening?" she demanded of the boy sitting next to her. "Why do you keep getting paired with us?"

"How should I know," he muttered the words out of the corner of his mouth, keeping himself facing straight ahead rather than facing her so no one would suspect anything. "You never told me you had this today."

"You didn't tell me either!" She took a deep breath. "What do you have tomorrow?"

There was a long moment of silence. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Gou blinked owlishly. "What do you mean you don't know?! How could you not know?!"

"I don't have the schedule with me! It's back at the house."

"You don't have it _memorized_?!" Gou was struggling to keep her voice down.

"Do you?" he shot back and her jaw clipped shut. Well…she had, but then the hosts had gone and changed the schedule on her, but if she told Mikoshiba that he would simply ignore that part and just point out that she too didn't have it memorized. "Besides," Mikoshiba continued. "I hardly saw you yesterday. You didn't exactly give me a chance to tell you!"

"You could have texted it to me!"

"I didn't know it was important!"

With a huff she made a big show of crossing her arms and facing towards the window. This was so annoying. It wasn't Mikoshiba's fault that their two swim teams kept getting paired together but she didn't have anywhere else to direct her irritation.

"It isn't that bad is it?" asked Mikoshiba and Gou looked up at him.

"What?"

He was still facing forward. He would not look at her. "Being paired together," he said. "The swim teams I mean."

She looked away herself. "You know why it's bad…"

"Still." He rubbed the back of his head. "We got through the museum and the aquarium without incident. Today shouldn't be any different so long as we act normally."

Gou took a deep breath. What he said was true, though that wasn't the entire point. Being paired up and around each other in front of Rin gave her brother all the more dangerous opportunity to discover what had happened. If their swim teams weren't paired up it would eliminate that threat completely. It would make things so much easier.

But…there was nothing she could do about it. She would just have to deal with things as they came to her. _All we need to do is act normal. That shouldn't be too hard._

Behind her Nagisa suddenly rolled down the window and stuck his head out so he could shout enthusiastically at the seabirds. Rei scolded him, insisting sticking ones head out of a moving vehicles window was dangerous, and beside Gou Mikoshiba drew back at the sudden rush of wind, gold eyes slightly widened as he watched Rei try to drag the smaller teen back into the bus.

Gou took advantage of the distraction to look up at his face, listening to the antics of the two behind her with some amusement. They could do it. They could pull it off. With Mikoshiba she could. He was the sort who could do that sort of thing. He was the captain of the Samezuka swim team for God's sake, that swimming powerhouse. And…well, he had been trying to make it comfortable for her. He had let her come into his home without protest and had done his best to accommodate her. She hadn't exactly been making it easy for him, not that it was entirely her fault.

_It's both our faults._ Just like her mother had said. "_When you're married you do everything by halves."_

So in this case they each had half of the blame. How funny. Maybe her mother had been right.

Rei finally managed to pull Nagisa back into the bus, only to have Nagisa immediately turn and reach for his glasses, stating he needed them to see further, Rei loudly protesting his glasses were not binoculars.

Gou laughed into her hand. Normal was certainly easier for some to pull off than others.

* * *

If there was one nice thing - _one -_ Gou could say about this country it was that they had fantastic beaches. It was a largely coastal country and their coast was lovely besides. The water was relatively clear and Gou could see the green that covered the bottom even from a distance.

The sand underneath her feet was pleasant, not too jagged or too hot. She dug her toes into it, enjoying the sensation of the warm particles against her flesh. Maybe she could forego the whole conch and clam hunting session and sun bathe all day. That'd be nice and relaxing. She could use some relaxation.

She had purposely moved away by herself so her brother wouldn't get riled up. He hadn't said anything but she had caught him looking her way, though her expression was one she was unable to tell. He hadn't tried to punch Mikoshiba in the face yet at least.

To the side the host was prattling on about sea conch and how they thrived in relatively shallow water and seagrass habitats like this one. In the past the country's ancestors had relied heavily on conch as well as other sealife for food. Today it was a fun pastime for tourists and children.

Tourists like them. Or maybe the host country categorized them as children. _Then again we are of the age where it's legal for us to drink here. _In that case she hoped they didn't categorize them as children.

They were divided into pairs and, of course, the way the pairs were decided was by who they had been sitting by on the bus. Gou could only roll her eyes about it. This was the sort of path her luck had been taking lately. She actually felt sorry for Mikoshiba rather than herself. He had gotten stuck with the only girl. _But the girl he's stuck with is his wife. _A mental smack. _That _was not thinking normally.

They gathered at the edge of the water, the swim teams spread all along the beach. At the head was the Iwatobi swim team and Gou was glad about that. Since Rin had been in the second bus he was further down. She couldn't even see him and if he did look over he would hopefully think she was socializing with the Iwatobi boys.

"Conch are well know as marine gastropod mollusks in the family Strombidae," Rei was saying as they began throwing off their excess layers, even though Gou had no idea how _that _was well known. "They're second only to escargot in terms of popularity."

"Escargot," Haru said the foreign word slowly, as if chewing it. "What sort of popularity?"

"Edible snails," said Rei and Gou's face scrunched in disgust. Even Haru looked a little put off.

"That doesn't help us catch them, Rei-chan," Nagisa protested. "Tell us something useful."

"I was getting to that." Rei adjusted his glasses. He took a deep breath as if preparing for a speech. "They are often serviced as cerviche, consisting of raw conch marinated in lime juice, chopped onions, and habanero peppers. It is particularly popular in Panama's Colon and Bocas del Toro provinces. In the Dominic Republic and Peru it is only commonly eaten in curries or spicy soups. Their shells are used as an important ritual object in Hinduism but can also be used as a musical instrument."

He finished with a bright smile, very proud or happy with himself. There were a few seconds of silence.

"That wasn't helpful at all," Mikoshiba muttered and Gou turned away lest Rei see her choking down her laugh.

"Rei-chan, that doesn't help in the slightest." Nagisa voiced the same concern.

Rei spluttered a response but Haru, seemingly tired of conversation, turned and moved off into the water without a word, leaving Makoto to follow after him and Nagisa to chase after the both of them.

Mikoshiba started forward but paused when Gou didn't follow. "Coming?"

"A-ah, yes. Just a moment." She waved a hand to indicate she was fine and after some blinking Mikoshiba turned back around to head into the water. Gou had been waiting for this, for the boys' attentions to be elsewhere. She scanned the beach to make sure the other rampant amount of teenage boys weren't paying her the least bit of mind. She thought she could see Rin with the boy Nitori further away although it was hard to tell. It appeared Rin was looking around, possibly for her or possibly for Haru, but he was looking out along the water and not at the beach where she currently stood.

Satisfied that nobody was looking her way, Gou shucked off her shirt. While she didn't consider herself an exceptionally bashful person, wearing only a swimsuit around a bunch of boys and having them watch her strip down to it was not something she was ready to experience, especially when she was the only girl there. She left on her shorts, feeling more comfortable with that bit of additional coverage. She had worn them exactly for this reason.

There was a cold tinge to the water but nothing that made Gou want to scream and run out soon as she set foot in it. The seagrass on the other hand…She didn't like the feel of that. It was slightly slimy against her feet and she found herself grimacing as she moved through it. Gross.

Mikoshiba and her were rather restricted in how far into the water they could go out due to Gou's height. Nagisa and Rei suffered from the same predicament but they had solved it…somewhat. Nagisa was clinging to Rei's shoulder like a squirrel and faintly Gou could hear the taller teen complaining about it. _He's only complaining because he likes it._

Makoto and Haru suffered no such issue. They had moved far enough out that Gou could barely hear their voices at all, much less their words. She was a bit jealous of them. And poor Mikoshiba. He was the tallest out of all of them and he was stuck to the shallows due to her. Still he didn't complain at all. Gou thought about telling him he could go out further if he liked but decided against it. If he wanted to she was pretty sure he would just go ahead and do it. He didn't seem like the type who would falter in his decisions once he made them.

She peered into the water. There was no sign of the big twisted shells of the conch. The seagrass was likely too thick to spot any from above. "What color are these things anyway?"

"Tan," said Mikoshiba, who was peering into the water like her. "They blend in with the sand." He held out the net the host had given each set of teams. "Here, hold this. I'm going down."

"Going down?" Gou waded slowly over to take the net from him.

"Yeah." Once Gou had taken the net he dove under and she peered down to watch him. She might not be able to see the conch amid the seagrass but she could easily see Mikoshiba as he moved about in the clear water. He scoured along the seafloor, his hands moving across the stalks like a lawnmower across a lawn, searching for the hidden shells. Gou's eyes drifted to his muscled back, watching the play and ripples along his flesh, the way his shoulder blades worked. He couldn't see where she was looking so she could get away it. I-it was only natural when presented with such a sight. Totally normal. _Anyone _would have done it.

_Muscles are best seen in the flesh._

Then suddenly something latched onto her foot and she was nearly dunked backwards into the water. She hopped desperately on one leg to try and stay upright, laughing. "T-that's my foot!"

Mikoshiba popped up beside her. He was so close that the water he disturbed with his ascent soaked her. He wiped the water from his eyes. "What did I just grab?"

Gou was still laughing. "My foot!" She thrust the net at him before he had a chance to respond. "Here, I want to try," and she dove under.

They didn't have much luck. Even after a half hour had gone by they had nothing to show for their efforts. "Find anything?" asked Mikoshiba when Gou surfaced for the sixth time.

She shook her head. "No. Did you?"

"No." He gestured further out in the water. "Nanase-kun found one though."

"Haru?" She turned. Out in the deeper water Haru was standing, holding a conch shell disinterestedly in his hand while Makoto squawked excitedly about it, praising Haru for finding it. "Huh." Gou almost couldn't believe it. "He must be trying real hard."

"Actually I think he just stepped on it."

"…Oh." She scowled. "Luck just seems to find some people."

Mikoshiba chuckled. "No kidding."

By the time they were finished another forty-five minutes later the only one who had managed to find any conch at all was Haru, who had found three.

"H-how is that even possible?" asked Gou, staring at the large three shells Makoto had placed on the sand.

"W-well, I guess Haru just has an eye for detail." Makoto beamed with adoration at the dark haired teen but Haru's face was turned away and he said nothing.

Makoto was probably right though. If Haru really didn't have an eye for detail and the conch were just not _that _easy for him to find he would have been complaining finding the conch was too much effort. That attention to detail was likely the same reason why his art was so incredible.

Nagisa had found something as well during their conch hunting and he held it proudly up for all to see. A rock. A brown rock. "But why," asked Gou haltingly. "Why a rock?"

"To remind us of our time here!" cried Nagisa. He clutched the rock like it was a precious pet. "Right, Rei-chan?! Memories are an important thing!"

Rei's face was somewhere between a scowl and a grimace. "I wouldn't have minded so much if the rock were beautiful," he mumbled.

The next part of this excursion, the clam hunting, was to be held further down the beach. The hosts lead them and as they walked Gou contemplated what the clam hunting was going to be like. A lot like the conch hunting most likely. A nice lovely swim in tepid water. She didn't even mind if there was going to be more slimy seagrass. But what she got was not what she had expected at all.

Mud. All mud. Mud everywhere. Dark, turned up mud with pieces of seagrass and sticks in it. Gou's lip twitched, eyes unnaturally large._ This _was what they were supposed to be hunting clams in? It had to be some sort of weird joke or prank. They weren't expected to crawl around in the _mud _were they?

"We brought you all some nice boots to use for the mud!" said the host cheerily, holding up a pair of rubber things that Gou would have never referred to as boots. "We also have shovels for you to use!"

So not only did they have to roam around in the mud but they had to _dig _in it as well? Gou's face sagged. Terrible. This was terrible. Absolutely terrible. Can we go back to hunting conch she wanted to ask, but didn't want to make a scene either.

And the boots. Boots was an understatement. The 'boots' were big rubber things that came up to past their knees. They were super clunky and uncomfortable. Everyone looked absolutely ridiculous in them, except for Makoto, who managed to pull off wearing the huge things with a certain finesse that made them look a little less ridiculous.

"The clams are buried under the mud!" said the host. She clapped her hands. "Have fun!"

"Fun," muttered Gou. How this could possibly be fun was beyond her. She hadn't enjoyed playing in the mud since she was a child. Rin and her had had some epic mud adventures. Thinking of her brother, she looked for him, spotting him further down but he didn't look any more excited to be diving into their old play pastime than she did.

Experimentally she pushed her rubber boot into the mud. It stuck like glue and with a bit of heaving she managed to extract her foot. _This is more like quick sand than mud. _With her small stature this was not going to be easy.

"Let me go first."

"Huh?" She blinked up to find Mikoshiba watching her.

"Let me go first and then walk behind me." He gestured at the mud. "You can walk in the impressions I make. It'll be easier that way."

It took her a moment and then she understood. "Ohhhh." Being much bigger and stronger than she, it would be easier for him to go first and for her to walk in his imprints than for her to try and make her own way through that icky mud. She'd likely only get stuck if she tried to go in by herself. "Okay."

Mikoshiba went in first and with him Nagisa. And somehow Nagisa…Nagisa was able to _run_ through the mud with little to no difficulty. He hardly stumbled and his feet didn't seem to sink in at all. _How _he did it was a complete mystery. Even the others looked shocked. _He's making it look way too easy. _

Mikoshiba had to take it much more slowly. Carefully he lifted his feet, sometimes leaning precariously, and wobbling as he extracted one foot and then the other, but he remained upright and wasn't doing too bad considering. He even used the shovel as a make shift walking stick for leverage.

Gou watched his path carefully and once he was a few yards in she started forward. Despite using Mikoshiba's imbedded footprints the going was slow and the mud still sucked at her shoes. She lurched and wobbled, arms spread wide to try and balance herself. She was incredibly grateful she had his impressions to stand in. If she had tried walking in without them she would have gotten stuck in no time flat.

"Rei-chan!" Nagisa called out. The blond had stopped quite a few yards ahead of even Mikoshiba and was waving energetically. "Come on!"

Rei grimacing but seemed unable to deny Nagisa. With a great deal of amount of care he stepped into the mud. "T-this looks very precarious." He took another step forward and for someone whose movements were normally so suave, Rei was anything but that right now. He tottered like a newborn giraffe. His arms pinwheeled and he wavered from one side to the other in an effort to keep his balance. "This is not stable in the least!" He went sprawling a moment later and his entire front smacked into the mud with a sharp wet slapping sound.

Gou couldn't completely muffle the laugh that arose. She raised her hands to her mouth in an effort to stifle it.

"T-this is not beautiful!" Rei floundered like a beached sea cow as he struggled to lift himself up. His glasses were askew and the mud made loud sucking noises as, with an enormous amount of effort, he pulled his arm out.

"Rei-chan!" Nagisa raced over to try and help his struggling friend. Yet halfway there he got his own foot stuck and fell forward straight into the mud just like Rei, causing the other teen to get sprayed with the brown muck.

Gou burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she forgot to maintain her balance and instantly stumbled. Her left foot landed outside of Mikoshiba's impression and with she fell backwards onto her behind. She leaned back on her arms, laughing too hard to do anything about it.

Mikoshiba immediately turned and came back towards her. "Are you alright?"

She waved her hand back in response. "I-I'm fine," she choked out from around her laughter. Tears formed at the corner of her eyes. Mikoshiba moved further towards her as if he were coming to help but suddenly drew up short a few feet away. A moment later she saw why. Further down the beach Rin was watching them, a scowl on his face. If he was scowling at the antics of the two boys rolling about in the mud or about Mikoshiba who knew. Regardless, Mikoshiba was keeping his distance just in case.

Makoto and Haru were still on the beach out of the mud. The two had linked their hands together and were currently trying to stretch out and reach Rei. Rei reached back and snagged Makoto's hand. It was a poorly thought out plan however. Makoto was heavier than Haru and Haru was the one acting as anchor. As Makoto tried to pull Rei out, Rei pulled back and within an instance Makoto lost his balance and went catapulting straight into the mud, pulling the smaller and lighter Haru right in after him. The three boys landed in the mud atop each other, a tangled heap of arms, legs, and swimsuit.

Gou's laughter became too much. She fell back and then instantly straightened as if burned. "Oh god!" she cried. "It's in my hair!"

Nagisa had somehow managed to excavate himself. With the shovel in hand he circled around Rei. "I'll dig you out, Rei-chan!"

Rei leaned as far away as he could, as if the shovel were some sort of dangerous weapon. "T-that's not what that shovel is for!"

Behind Rei Makoto straggled to his hands and knees. He held there, looking back and forth as if seeking some sort of rescue. Haru had rolled off him and he sat in the mud next to him, mouth partly open and looking unsure as to what he should do next as well.

Down the entire beach everyone was pretty much experiencing the same dilemma. Teen boys were floundering helplessly in the mud or fighting to escape and crawl back to the shore. Some, like Gou, were laughing too hard to try and help their comrades or even themselves in the least.

The host was yelling earnestly to them but Gou couldn't hear from this distance. She sighed and flopped backwards into the mud, a stray chuckle escaping her mouth. _So much for clam hunting._

* * *

They were able to shower off a bit before heading back. If it was for their own benefit or the hosts Gou couldn't say. It would surely be unpleasant for them to have to ride in the bus covered in mud but having to clean up after such a thing might be worse. It would probably be easier to just set the bus on fire in that case. Gou was tempted to fall to her knees and praise the heavens at seeing the showers. Praise the genius had thought to place them here. Even though the water was _freezing cold _after the first two or three people used them. Gou was willing to endure the chill in order to feel somewhat clean again.

After the quick rinse off, they waited by the bus for the others to finish. The host was wrapping up the day, telling them they could keep any conch they had found. She strongly encouraged them to try cooking and eating them, describing them as a delicacy.

"Aren't they edible snails?" asked Haru suspiciously and Makoto chuckled.

"I'm pretty sure edible snails _are_ considered a delicacy, but I bet there's some mackerel that you can have instead." He ran his hand through his wet hair. "I wouldn't mind trying the conch though. It could be an interesting experience. Rei sounds like he knows some recipes we could use."

"I want to try some too!" Nagisa exclaimed. "One of the best things about coming to a foreign country is trying the local delicaces! We should definitely do it!" A strange gleam entered his eye and he looked back at Mikoshiba leaning against the bus. "Captain Mikoshiba should join us too."

Gou stumbled and nearly smacked her head into the side of the bus. W-what was Nagisa doing?! Hastily she looked about herself. Thankfully her brother wasn't nearby. He stood at the back of the line waiting to get on the second bus and was far enough away that he couldn't hear them.

"N-now, Nagisa," said Makoto. Was the moisture on his face from the shower or sweat? "We shouldn't impose on Captain Mikoshiba. I-I'm sure he has other engagements with his own swim team."

"Actually." Mikoshiba rubbed his chin, a broad smile that was a tad mischievous splitting his face. "That sounds great. I'd be happy to join you guys."

Gou's mouth fell open. She could feel the blood rushing to her face. She couldn't think of anything to say, her brain having apparently stalled out.

Makoto looked to be in the same condition as she but Nagisa was delighted. "Great! Let's make _lots_ of conch together!" He paused and looked at Gou. "Conch is something we can have right, Gou-chan? Conch doesn't have trans fat or hydrogenated oils does it?"

Gou froze, her jaw snapping shut. Her face was still red but this time for a different reason. She had never told Mikoshiba about practically stealing his diet to bolster her own team's performance and she was painfully aware of his presence next to her, could feel his eyes on her. "A-ah, yes," she coughed. She pretended to be very interested in some nearby trees.

"Perfect!" Nagisa rubbed his hands together. "I can't wait to try it! I bet it will be delicious! Rei-chan can do most of it."

Rei straightened. "D-don't just volunteer me! Why do I have to do most of it?"

"Because you're Rei-chan."

"That isn't a real reason!"

As the two commenced their bickering, Gou peeked discreetly up through her wet bangs at Mikoshiba. His face had smoothed out and he was listening to Nagisa and Rei with mild amusement. What was he thinking accepting Nagisa's invitation? Had he felt obligated to because he thought it would be impolite for him to refuse? Or did he legitimately want to spend time with the Iwatobi boys? They had never socialized or interacted much in the past, but when they did they always got along well it seemed. Maybe Mikoshiba did want to get to know them better. That made sense.

Gou wasn't even sure of her own feelings regarding the situation. On one hand she felt almost nervous, a feeling she couldn't explain why. On the other she was okay with it. Him becoming closer to the Iwatobi boys was a good thing. They should be friends.

The host ushered them onto the bus and while the journey back was quiet, it was not uncomfortable.

* * *

Gou perched on the bar counter in the kitchen, pawing through a swimming magazine in front of her. It was one of Goro's magazines. She wasn't sure which boy had swiped it from the coach and she wasn't about to go around asking questions. The magazine wasn't as dirty as she had first thought, although there were plenty of young pretty girls posing in skimpy swimsuits throughout its pages. She sniffed and adjusted the towel wrapped around her head like a turban. The first thing she had done upon entering the Iwatobi lodges was a shower. Even if she had rinsed off earlier there had still been flecks of mud on her scalp and her poor hair a ragged mess. She felt much more comfortable and sanitary once stepping out of the shower.

In front of her Makoto and Nagisa were bustling about the kitchen, getting things ready for their meal and making tea. Haru was busy in the shower and likely would be for a long time. He took longer showers than anyone Gou had ever met. But it was Haru. She should have expected that.

Rei and Mikoshiba were absent from the lodge, having gone food shopping. Rei was the only who knew what ingredients they needed, and surprisingly Mikoshiba had been the one to volunteer to go along and help carry the groceries back, which Rei had accepted graciously. That action had made Gou curious once again about the two's relationship. The two seemed very comfortable in each other's presence and Mikoshiba did call Rei by his first name unlike the other Iwatobi boys, whose last name's he used instead. She didn't understand it at all.

"Gou-chan."

Gou looked up from the magazine page advertising protein shakes with a picture of a guy whose muscles were the size of two Pepsi liter bottles stacked a top each other to find Makoto in front of her. She blinked at his expression. "Something wrong?"

"Are you really alright having Mikoshiba here?" he asked without hesitation. "If you aren't you should say so…"

Ah, so that's what he was concerned about it. She should have known.

Nagisa leaned over into the two's conversation before she got a chance to answer. "Inviting Mikoshiba was the polite thing to do! He was helping Gou-chan all day-" She blushed. "And he's going to be around a lot anyway, right?" He looked pointedly at each of them in turn. "If that is the case we should get to know him. There's no reason to hold him at a distance! As the captain of Rin-chan's swim team we should be friends with him regardless!" He slammed his hands down on the counter.

Both Gou and Makoto were a bit taken aback by Nagisa's sudden intensity regarding the subject. That was how Nagisa was though. He wanted to be friends with everyone. He did raise some very valid points however.

"I understand that, Nagisa," said Makoto. "It's just that…" He trailed off but the look he gave Gou said it all. Becoming friends with Mikoshiba would be ideal but insuring Gou was comfortable with the situation was a higher priority. If she wasn't there was no doubt in Gou's mind that Makoto would figure out some way to call the whole thing off.

She smiled a little. _So much like an older brother._

"Its fine," she said. "Really."

Makoto watched her intently a moment, reading her reaction to make sure it was legit, which made her giggle, then he smiled. "Okay."

They invited Goro and Amakata to join them, an offer that was eagerly accepted once Gou saw what they were eating. "Pizza." She stared at the round food in the square box like it was a dead rat.

"Don't scold me!" protested Goro. He picked up a slice and stuffed it into his mouth. "I'm not competing; I can eat whatever I want."

"If the teacher isn't following the rules," demanded Gou, "then why should the students?!" She whirled about. "Where's a trash can?!"

"I'm eating it over here on purpose!" said Goro between gnashing. "They won't see it over here! They won't have any idea about it at all!"

"You're setting a bad example!"

"No, I'm not, pizza is a delicious commodity!"

Gou ground her teeth together but unfortunately there was nothing she could do about it. Goro was an adult so she couldn't exactly demand he follow what she said. So long as none of the Iwatobi boys stopped over unexpectedly they wouldn't know about Goro's dark little secret and hopefully it would stay that way. Otherwise Nagisa and Goro would likely be fighting over the greasy thing like a pack of hyenas over a zebra's corpse.

She informed both adults that Mikoshiba would be joining them, news that made both adults glance at each other warily. "I-it's not like that," said Gou, shuffling her feet. "Nagisa was the one who invited him, not me!"

That didn't stop the atmosphere from becoming slightly awkward when Mikoshiba and Rei returned from their grocery shopping however. Goro had his arms crossed over his chest and an expression that looked almost affronteded. Whether that was because Mikoshiba was from a different swim team and they were fraternizing with the enemy or due to the marriage Gou wasn't certain. _Probably both._

Amakata on the other hand was the exact opposite. She was extremely warm and friendly upon meeting Mikoshiba – _A little _too _warm and friendly _– and shot Gou a sly smile when Mikoshiba wasn't looking. Gou could only ponder what that smile meant but it made her blush regardless.

There were vegetables that had to be cut and the conch meat retrieved from their shells. Amakata and Gou volunteered for the vegetables, giving the task of extracting the conch from its shell to the boys. iIt was a bit ridiculous how excited they became at the problem presented to them. The six of them descended into caveman mode to extract the conch meat, smacking the shell against various objects, each of them throwing out suggestions and talking loudly, turning the conch over and around in their hands like the shells were hard math problems to solve. After a few minutes they departed to go outside, Rei declaring they needed additional tools to help them.

_And that's how man invented tools_, thought Gou, watching them with a bit of amusement. _A man will think of anything to fill his stomach._

Once the boys had left the room, Amakata leaned over. "Is it weird having Mikoshiba here?"

Gou shook her head, her gaze remaining of the chili pepper she was slicing. "No. It's fine. Nagisa was the one who invited him. I think they want to become closer to him."

"Hmmm." Amakata raised a finger to her smiling lips. Her eyes were unusually bright and crinkled at the corners.

"W-what's that look for?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Amakata leaned back in her seat to peer at the boys through the window. They had set the conch down on a table outside and were holding various tools above it. For some insane reason Nagisa had a hammer, which he was waving rather precariously, and Goro had what looked to be a saw. Gou made a mental note to stay as far away from there as possible. Faintly she could see Mikoshiba's form on the left. He was easy to spot, she just had to look for the tallest person.

"He's very cute," commented Amakata and Gou nearly sliced a finger off.

"Am-ama-chan!" _Inappropriate!_

It took the boys a while to extract the conch meat and there was some dubious banging and clunking noises throughout the process, but they had managed it in the end. Once extracted, the meat needed to be trimmed. It was Haru, so used to gutting mackerel, who took over the task. Through the window Gou could see him standing there, covered in an apron and a large butcher knife in his hand. His hand descended and he set to the supposed butchering, and an instant later Makoto came racing into the lodge. He was blue in the face and shaking like he were about to be sick. He declared to the two ladies he needed to use the restroom and took off towards it with one hand over his mouth and the other running along the wall of the hallway as if needing it for balance.

Rei soaked the meat in lime juice with the vegetables Gou and Amakata had cut up. "I have decided to go with a spicy conch chowder recipe," he declared. "Frying would have been a lot easier," he mumbled, "but as I understand we are not supposed to have that."

"That's right!" Gou imposed. "Frying has trans fat and hydrogenated oils!"

Rei frowned. "Do you even know what those mean?" he asked her. "Or _are_ for that matter?"

She didn't but she wasn't about to tell _him _that. She had to at least pretend she knew what she was doing.

Gou assisted him and Amakata in their cooking by handing them ingredients when they called for them, however once the two really got going Gou was excluded from their cooking frenzy. Rei was not a huge cook but he did like showing off his intelligence, and Amakata was eager to learn a new recipe. Gou became like a fifth wheel, utterly useless and in the way. After a few minutes of standing there without either of them acknowledging her existence, she decided she was no longer needed and went outside.

She was quite surprised to find Goro and Mikoshiba talking animatedly to each other. The two were standing next to each other and their body language was relaxed, completely at ease. Goro's attitude towards Mikoshiba had certainly changed drastically since Mikoshiba had first arrived. He even had a beer – _Where did he get that?! – _and they were conversing energetically about swimming. Well they did have quite a bit in common, both being coaches in their own way. They _would_ hit it off talking about something like that.

"Gou-chan!" Nagisa cried and, hearing her name, Mikoshiba glanced her way but only briefly before returning to his conversation with Goro. "Is the food ready yet?"

Gou had no idea but she didn't want Nagisa to go in there and pester Amakata and Rei with questions. "It will be soon," she said instead. "So relax. It'll be out soon." The only seating out there was the picnic table where they had been smacking the conch and she moved to sit down at it only to pull up short, grimacing. Pieces of conch shell were scattered all across it. Remnants of the war the boys had fought. A lone survivor remained, one shell that was relatively unscathed.

Brushing aside the shell pieces, Gou took a seat close towards the middle of the bench. Within moments of her sitting Mikoshiba sat down on Gou's left side. He barely glanced her way nor did he break off his conversation with Goro as he took his seat, as though it were the most natural thing in the world for him to sit there next to her. Gou tilted her head inquisitively his way but he was too engrossed in his conversation to pay her much mind. He had given her enough space that she didn't feel the need to scoot away so she let the matter go. He could sit wherever he liked.

Goro and Nagisa followed his example, taking a seat on the opposite side of the table. Makoto and Haru were unexplainably absent. Had Makoto ever come out of the bathroom? She couldn't remember. _Maybe Haru joined him in there and that's why he hasn't come out._

"In terms of speed six beat kicking is the way," Mikoshiba was saying to Goro. "The two beat kicking trends are related more to high tempo freestyles, and to endure the large training volume of the 70's and 80's. The current trend today is the six beat kick. That way you use your legs from start to finish."

"That's not completely true. There have been – and still are – successful distance swimmers that use a two beat or four beat kick," Goro held his beer by the top of the can and pointed a finger at Mikoshiba with the hand that held it. "After all many swimmers don't maintain a consistent kick when they breathe. You have to take into account that technique flaw." He took a swig of his beer. "The kick just needs to be steady anyway."

"Exactly, steady but you'll also want it to be fast," Mikoshiba replied. "You shouldn't be afraid of expending energy, there's no reason to conserve it. If you try and save the legs you'll land up in last place."

Gou had no idea what they were talking. Swimming, obviously, but that sort of technical stuff was way over her head. Disregarding their conversation, Gou returned her attention to the conch shell. There was a small hole at the top of it but outside of that it was undamaged. The cavemen had progressively learned how to better remove the meat from the shell it had seemed. This must have been the last one they had done. Gou turned it over in her hands. She liked the shell. It was pretty. White and tan with pink on the inside. It reminded her of the pearl ring on her finger a bit.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Mikoshiba lean back against the wall behind them, his arms loosely crossed over his stomch. His face turned towards her. "If you hold it up to your ear it'll sound like the ocean," he said.

She looked up at him. "Huh?"

Across the table from them Goro was currently engaged in some sort of debate with Nagisa, leaving Mikoshiba free of their conversation for the moment.

"The open part." Mikoshiba twisted the shell in her hand so the open area faced her. "If you put that to your ear it sounds like the ocean."

Gou's face scrunched. How could this shell sound like the ocean? It was beautiful but there was no way something this tiny could make the same sound the ocean did. The ocean was _huge_.

"Try it," Mikoshiba encouraged her and, hesitantly, she did so. Her eyes widened. The ocean! She could hear it! Her mouth worked to try and form words. Faint but there, like a tiny god had somehow placed a tiny ocean into the shell. "H-how is that possible?"

Mikoshiba was grinning. "I'm not sure what causes them to do that it honestly. When I was young we took a trip to the Caribbean, that's where I learned about it. I don't remember the explanation for it though."

Gou took the shell away from her ear then put it back. She could still hear the ocean sounds. She stared at the shell. _I am so keeping this._ Maybe she could put it by her bed and listen to it before she fell asleep. _Well…Mikoshiba's bed actually. _

Haru and Makoto emerged from the house. Makoto looked a little worse for wear but he was moving about at least.

"My goodness," said Mikoshiba. "You didn't get _that _sick from seeing the conch did you? There wasn't even hardly any blood."

Makoto made a strange choked sound. "I don't like seeing that kind of stuff."

"But you're about to eat it, Mako-chan!" Nagisa pointed out.

Makoto closed his eyes and placed his head in his hands. "Don't remind him," said Haru.

"Those poor animals," muttered Makoto.

Goro slapped a hand against his upper arm. "We'll need to toughen you up!" he declared. "When we get back to Japan I'll take you out on my squid boat and we can hunt sharks one day!"

"Please no," said Makoto, and Mikoshiba commented, "I'm pretty sure shark hunting is illegal."

"Oh, is it?" Goro shook his head like he were clearing away flies. "I didn't know that."

Gou watched him take another swig of his beer with narrowed eyes. How many beers had he had exactly? She had only seen him with the one but who knew how many he had before she came outside. She shook her head slightly. Alcohol was a dangerous thing. If he ended up getting wasted and then ran off and got married she wasn't sure whether she would laugh or bang her head into a wall.

Rei came out and proudly announced that the food was ready. Amakata even served it herself, insisting that the others stay where they were. They ate around the picnic table outside, the eight of them squished together on a table designed for six. Gou found herself between Mikoshiba and Amakata. She was so close to either of them if she extended her elbow too far she would bump into them. After a moment of panicked blushing she got her heart rate under control and made herself focus on her food. Mikoshiba had _chosen _to sit next to her anyway. It was his fault.

They talked pleasantly as they ate. Mikoshiba conversed with the Iwatobi team easily and seamlessly, and Gou was a bit surprised how naturally he seemed to fit in. The boys chatted with him like he was an old friend and Goro seemed to be developing a slight case of hero worship. It was nice to see but bittersweet as well. Someone else used to be a part of this group. Someone else used to sit and converse with them just like Mikoshiba was doing this very instant.

_My brother should be here. _To this day Gou still remembered the look of joy she had seen on her brother's face when he had won the relay with the very same people that sat at this table now. It had been the happiest she had seen her brother since their father had died. _So why?_ _Why isn't he here with them? _Mikoshiba was laughing at something Nagisa had said. Gou watched the amusement light up his face. _Why isn't brother here like Mikoshiba is?_

But like many things that had to do with her brother, Gou didn't have the answer.

* * *

It was late by the time they began to head to his place. Eating dinner had taken a while. Nobody had seemed to want to end the conversations and it had only ended when Amakata finally decreed she was going to bed. The teens and Goro had done a quick clean up after that and then it was Gou who suggested they head back.

She took the shell with her. The boys didn't seem to have any interest in it and she enjoyed it not only for its color but the ocean sounds it made. She doubted they would even notice it was missing.

"Thanks for the meal," said Mikoshiba from the steps before departing. "It was a pleasure."

"Thanks for coming, Captain Mikoshiba!" Nagisa's arm was waving wildly in the air. "Come back anytime!"

"Yes, this was very pleasant," Rei added. "Please feel free to come whenever you like."

"Absolutely," put in Goro, swirling his beer and looking a little glassy eyed.

Gou couldn't believe it. Did they really like Mikoshiba so much already?

As she started down the sidewalk, she heard Goro talking to the Iwatobi boys from behind her. "I like him!" the coach decreed and Gou could only include that indeed they did like Mikoshiba so much already.

They walked side by side in comfortable silence for a while, listening to the quiet sounds of the night and the waves from the distant shore. It was a pleasant night and a pleasant atmosphere. So much different than what it had been this morning. Funny how much could happen and change in a day. Then again it had only taken one night of drunken stupidity to change her life completely. That was just the way life is Gou supposed. Anything could change in just one day.

"You like that shell, huh?"

Gou blinked up. Mikoshiba was studying the shell in her hands. "Oh, yes," she said. "I like the sounds it makes. And it reminds me of the ring I got for my mother." She held up her hand to show him the ring.

"That's a pearl, isn't it?"

She nodded.

"It's funny you should say that," he remarked. "Conch can actually have pearls in them."

"Oh really?" That was interesting. Maybe the pearl in her ring had come from the very conch she held in her hand. And now it was…dead and they had eaten it. Gou found she didn't really like the direction that train of thought was going in.

"Those boys," said Mikoshiba suddenly. He rubbed his chin, a bit of a smirk on his face. "They seem to be following a very familiar diet."

Gou made a sound like a cat being trodden on. He had noticed! And he hadn't said anything about it until now. "A-ah yes. Ummm." She looked away. "S-sorry about that. I…I should have asked or said something about it." For some reason she felt bad. Like she had betrayed him or done something sneaky behind his back. _Which I…kind of did._

Mikoshiba chuckled and she whirled to look at him again. "It's fine," he said. "Plenty of other swimmers follow that diet anyway. It's a diet they _should _be following to begin with." He paused. The amusement fell off his face and into a blank mask. "If you do have any questions or need advice though," he continued. "Just ask."

Gou stared at him. He wouldn't turn her way and was keeping his gaze steadily facing forward. Still, she smiled.

"Thank you."

* * *

Two papers were laid out before her. Gou stared at them intensely, her gaze roving over the squares populating both sheets. On her right was Samezuka's schedule and on her left was the Iwatobi's new one. After a moment her eyebrows lowered. _Those…_

She thought up a few colorful curses for their hosts. Ever since this morning she had had a suspicion about it and now she had it confirmed.

"How's it look?" Mikoshiba approached her where she sat at the kitchen table, patting himself dry after having finally taken a shower.

"They match." She held the papers up for him to read.

"Completely?"

"Almost, but not entirely." Gou lowered the papers with a frown. "Our swimming days are still different, but all the other events are the exact same."

"So Samezuka and Iwatobi are paired up for all events the hosts are throwing for us, is that it?"

"That's right." Gou sighed. It was a pain for sure, but surprisingly it wasn't freaking her out too much. They had gotten through all those others day, today included, without incident. So long as Mikoshiba and her acted normal there wasn't any reason for her brother to suspect something else was going on below the surface. Besides, Aater what had happened today she felt substantially more comfortable about the situation than she had previously.

"I'm going to head to bed." Mikoshiba's upper face was hidden by the towel as he rubbed his hair dry. "I have to get up early."

"Early?"

"Yeah. I have a meeting."

"Oh. Here?"

He nodded.

Gou pursed her lips. "Do I need to uhhh gooooo somewhere?" She wouldn't want one of the Samezuka team members to know she was here if she could help it. The less people knew the better, especially those who were in close contact with Rin on a daily basis.

"No, it's fine, trust me. You don't need to leave." He yawned. "You should head to bed too. It's late."

He headed towards the couch and Gou turned back to replace the Samezuka's schedule to the tack board. She sat there a moment, looking at the lone paper hanging there and the other paper that still remained in her hand.

Shrugging, she tacked the Iwatobi schedule next to the Samezuka one. Not that it really mattered, they were the exact same. She would just need to look at one to know what both teams were doing. Regardless she left it there anyway.

* * *

**This fic is turning out way longer than I anticipated and I'm running into a bit of a snag because three months was a horrible idea! I should have done nine weeks! Oh god. I'll figure out something...probably...maybe. Or otherwise I'll just go to Plan B: Rocks fall and everyone dies. Yeah.**

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed, and favorited! You guys make my work day so much more bearable, seriously!**


	7. Knowledge

**Wooo I've had family visiting the last week so my free time has been pretty much nil and I haven't been getting much sleep. I was supposed to be catching up on it tonight but I wrote this instead. Hopefully after this Sunday we'll be returning to our normal scheduled programing!**

**Have a Haruism:**

"Frankly, Rin, I don't give a damn" -** What Haru should have said to Rin in episode 4, Gone with the Wind**

* * *

The next morning there were voices. Voices from down the hallway in the living room that woke Gou up. She groaned. _It's too early. _Pulling the blanket over her head in an effort to drown out the noise proved ineffective. She even tried using the pillow to no avail. There was no blocking out the noise unless she closed the door.

The door. She had left it open last night. Actually now that she thought about it the only time she had closed it was when she was changing. It was a bit insane she had never thought to close the door considering there was a boy sleeping in the very next room from her. _That's because I'm clearly losing my mind._

Gou tore the pillow off her head. The voices down the hall were energetic and awfully immersed in whatever they were talking about. It had to be Mikoshiba's meeting, the one he had mentioned to her briefly last night. Gou rubbed an eye. Did they have to have it so early?She looked at the clock. Okay, it wasn't _that _early but still, she wanted to sleep. She liked sleeping in this bed.

Her eyes widened a bit at that thought. It was the bed, just the bed! It was nice and big and comfortable. It had nothing to do with the fact that it was _Mikoshiba's_ bed.

Although she didn't mind the fact that Mikoshiba had failed to change the sheets from when he had slept in the bed the night before last, that night when she had been too tired to head back here and had stayed at the Iwatobi lodges instead. His scent lingered on the linen. She had recognized it when she had first lain down last night. That smell of sun and wind she recognized.

Gou scrambled out of the bed as if it had suddenly turned into lava. She stared at it like it were a venus fly trap she had nearly fallen into. _Maybe I really am losing my mind._

Taking a deep breath, Gou directed her attention to the voices filtering down the hallway. There were definitely two. And for some reason they both sounded familiar. Mikoshiba's voice she recognized easily. It was hard to mistake a voice like his own. But the other she couldn't quite put her finger on. Mikoshiba hadn't specified last night who it was coming over.

For a moment she wondered if she should stay in the bedroom. If she went out into the living room – walking out from none other than the _bedroom _no less – the other person would surely be astounded at seeing a girl waltzing around and would want to know what she was doing there. But Mikoshiba had said last night that it was fine for her to be here while he was having his meeting. Did that mean it was okay for her to go out there and strut around her presence? Maybe he had simply meant he wasn't going to kick her out when he had people come over because that would be impolite but that she should stay hidden if she could help it? Then again that sounded like something he would have told her to do if it was needed. Or did he not care if his swim team members found out? Outside of Rin he had never explicitly indicated he was trying to not tell anyone else. Had he told anyone else? She didn't think so but she had never questioned him about it.

Gou shook her head. She was thinking about this way too much.

From down the hall she heard Mikoshiba and the other person speaking. Two of the words gave her pause. Butterfly stroke. Her eyes narrowed. _There's only one person I know of who would be discussing _that_._

She made her way into the living room. She stepped into the entryway and instantly froze. "You have got to be kidding me…"

Mikoshiba was sitting on the couch. The pillows had been pushed aside into the corner and the sheets underneath a wrinkled mess. And next to him was none other than Rei.

The meeting. Gou couldn't believe it. _This_ was the person Mikoshiba was meeting with? Well it explainsed why Mikoshiba wasn't concerned about Gou being here during it.

"Good morning, Gou-san," said Rei.

Gou was having a hard time forming a response. The coffee table was currently covered in papers, charts and stacks of books. Charts that depicted a human diving and swimming. Arrows pointed to various parts of the drawn human with little descriptions that Gou was unable to read. On top of the stacks of books sat the title 'Human Kinetics: Swimming Successfully'.

_Rei's stuff. This is definitely Rei's stuff._

"Umm…What exactly…what exactly are you two doing?"

"Well, that's an interesting story." Rei leaned back and pushed his glasses further onto his noses, as if preparing for a speech. "When I came here to arrange the meeting between Captain Mikoshiba and yourself, the two of us got to talking." He clasped his hands. "I am still a new swimmer. Memorizing formulas is one thing but nothing can quite compare to the extended experience of a full fledged athlete or the teachings of one who has taught."

Gou stared at him for a long moment but nothing further was forthcoming. "So…?"

"So I asked for Captain Mikoshiba's assistance regarding my technique," said Rei. "He agreed to oblige my request."

"O-oh." She frowned. She hadn't heard about any of this before. Surely one of the other boys would have mentioned it if they knew. Which meant…"The others don't know you're here do they?"

Rei shook his head. "Knowing them they would only insist on coming themselves. I wish to use this time to focus on myself and indulge my own knowledge. With them here I feel that may be hampered."

"How were you possibly able to deter Nagisa from coming?" Gou knew to ask the important questions.

"I told him I was going to the library."

That _would _deter Nagisa. He would likely find the library too boring to want to tag along.

Gou picked up one of the drawings littered across the table. It depicted a swimmer performing the butterfly stroke, with little notes that described how best to hold ones arms and legs. Rei sure was being serious about improving, wasn't he? He had even gone so far as to ask Mikoshiba, the captain of _another _swim team, to help him. Fraternizing with the enemy indeed. _He was doing it before I even was! _

That also explained why Mikoshiba had been using Rei's first name these last few days. The two likely felt quite a bit closer after Rei had asked the older male for assistance.

"There's some coffee in the kitchen if you want some," Mikoshiba offered.

Gou grimaced. She hated coffee.

"Shell we continue?" asked Rei and Mikoshiba nodded. The two leaned over a book together like old classmates. It was…kind of cute. Gou perched on the arm of the couch to listen to them, a bit curious as to what they were discussing.

"I am finding that during the release of the arm stroke is when I lose the most speed and time," said Rei. "The upsweep phase seems to also be a struggle."

"The release is easy," Mikoshiba insisted. "You're likely creating too much drag. What order are you leaving the water for that stroke phase?"

"Shoulders, elbows, forearms, hands."

"How are you positioning your hands?"

Rei demonstrated and Mikoshiba moved his hand around Rei's in a circular fashion. "Lead with the pinkie first and your palms facing inward. That creates the least amount of drag. And the upsweep. Are you fully extending your arms?"

"I do not believe so but perhaps."

"Then you're pushing water upwards instead of backwards. You'll want to stop the upsweep stroke before your arms are fully extended. How's your dolphin kick?"

"I am still perfecting it but I believe I have the technique down. So long as I have the body undulation mastered the dolphin kick and arm stroke should fall in naturally I read."

"Maybe you're focusing too much on making sure your body undulation is perfect and that's causing you to falter in the arm stroke."

Gou's eyes were crossed. Like last night when Mikoshiba had been talking to Goro she had no idea what was being said. _It's like another language. _One that was incredibly boring. She found her eyelids drooping as the two continued their discussion. Once Mikoshiba started talking about something called finger paddles Gou decided it was time for her to find something to do with herself than listen to them talk about their swimming infatuations.

First stop was getting dressed, something she had once again forgotten to do before emerging from the bedroom. She took a quick shower and with that finished she set her mind on fulfilling the task she had failed to do since moving to Mikoshiba's house.

Unpacking.

Outside of the one piece of luggage she had done the other day, everything still sat in the living room in the pile where Mikoshiba had deposited them. She had been either too busy or not motivated enough to finish. Now was the perfect time. Mikoshiba was preoccupied with Rei and she had nothing else to do. Plus it needed to be done. Surviving off the clothes from one bag alone would not do at all.

It was only until she got closer that she realized what a daunting task that was going to be. Some of the bags were almost as big as Gou herself. Maybe she _had_ packed too much.

But she had needed this stuff! Just in case. You never knew when you were going to need those pair of high heels or that skirt or that hat that matched with that specific skirt or tights to go underneath her dresses or shoes or sandals depending on the situation or a sweater in case they went somewhere cold like a movie theater or a light jacket if the sweater wasn't enough and socks for her sneakers. You had to be prepared for whatever sort of situation arose. _Oh jeez I'm turning into Ama-chan. By the time I'm her age I'll be packing worse than _she _is._ She would need an intervention if it ever came to that.

She tugged on one that looked somewhat light. It was a little smaller than the other ones at least. Not that that made any less heavy. It had taken an enormous of effort for her to drag the first one into the bedroom and these appeared to be following in their brethren's footsteps…or wheel track's as the case stood. She grunted and heaved on the thing to drag it across the floor. Every tug only brought it a few inches. It was nothing short of amazing how Makoto had managed to carry all of the bags without any sort of struggle whatsoever and a firm testament to just how _strong _he was. _This is going to take a while._

Mikoshiba stood up from the couch. He walked over to Gou and, without breaking off his conversation, he seized the luggage in one hand. "Blah blah blah swimming blah – Where do you want this? – blah blah butterfly stroke, dolphin kick blah." He stooped down and with his other hand snagged onto another piece of Gou's luggage. Still continuing his conversation – Rei had actually gotten up to follow after him as he carried the luggage – Mikoshiba easily carried the bags into the bedroom as though they were filled with paper rather than stuffed nearly to the point of bursting with clothes and shoes.

_W-well he's…certainly as strong as Makoto. _Mikoshiba also had a really bad habit of wearing shirts that lacked sleeves. She had seen him in them many times before and today was not an exception. Normally this wasn't an issue but when he was doing…physical labor - so to speak – the lack of sleeves gave a..a prime view of certain things. Gou bit her nail. _Such incredible biceps._

"Gou."

"Hmmm?" Was someone speaking to her? She was far too distracted.

"Gou," came the voice a little more forcefully and Gou blinked.

"Huh?"

"Do you want the rest in here?" Mikoshiba gestured to the bedroom floor.

She stared. "The rest?"

Mikoshiba stared back. "…Of your luggage?"

"O-oh!" Gou straightened. "Y-yes, that would be lovely. Thank you."

_Jeez, what the heck is wrong with me!_

He walked out of the room with Rei, the two of them still discussing whatever it was they had been. Faintly she was glad he hadn't noticed her disorientation too much, at least not enough to ask questions. His conversation with Rei was stealing enough of his attention to keep her in the clear.

As he continued bringing in the rest of her luggage she did her best to keep her gaze firmly glued on her unpacking. If she did look his way her eyes might be drawn to certain muscles that she would be unable to look away from and oh god if he caught her staring. Her face was turning red just thinking about it. The situation was bad enough without him catching her _ogling _him.

Gou's head banged lightly into the dresser as she leaned her head against it. _So inappropriate!_

After Mikoshiba was done bringing in the rest of the luggage, he thankfully disappeared back into the living room with Rei rather than hang around the bedroom. Gou was glad. It allowed her to focus her attention on unpacking without certain distractions rippling about. Not that that made her unpacking take any less time.

_So many clothes. Why are there so many clothes?_

By the time she finished and came back into the living room, Rei had already left. "Where did Rei go?"

"He left to get ready." Mikoshiba looked to the clock. "You have to go soon, don't you?"

She did. They had the temple today. The same temple Samezuka had done a few days ago. "You have the pool don't you?"

"Right. It's our swimming day."

One of the few days they had where they would be doing separate activities, and the only reason for that was likely due to the fact Samezuka had already done the temple before the hosts had changed Iwatobi's schedule. For some reason Gou didn't find herself as excited about having separate activities as she had the first night she had spent at Mikoshiba's place when Samezuka had been the ones going to the temple.

"Did you eat?" Mikoshiba asked her as Gou grabbed her bag and started towards the door.

"No. I'll eat at Iwatobi's place. I'm sure they'll have something for me."

He gave her a dubious look. "How do you know they'll have food for you? What if they don't?"

"Then I'll go hungry. It's fine."

"You should have some toast at least."

"It's fine, I'm fine. I don't need anything."

He grabbed at the loaf sitting on the counter. "Have some toast."

She scowled mildly. She didn't like toast. "I don't want any toast."

"It's not about _wanting, _it's about _needing_. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You can't skip it. What kind of example would you be setting for the swimmers you manage in that case?"

He sounded uncannily like her when she had been was yelling at Goro for eating pizza. "I don't want any."

"Have some toast."

"I don't like toast!"

Mikoshiba's eyelids lowered to half mast. Gou was a bit taken aback. _Is he…He's glaring at me!_

"Have some toast." His voice had dropped a few octaves. His captain's voice. He was using his captain's voice on her.

Gou found herself a bit cowed, like a child being scolded for bad grades. It was no wonder he was the captain of such a successful swim team. With that tone anyone would find it hard to argue with him. Even someone as hot headed as Gou's brother. "O-okay. I'll have some toast."

* * *

It may have been just toast but it still made her late. She texted the Iwatobi boys to meet her at the temple instead of at the lodges as she dashed out of Mikoshiba's house. The temple wasn't that far. She could walk and meet them there.

She pulled the hood of her jacket upwards to hide some of her features as she went. The jacket made her incredibly hot and uncomfortable, but she preferred that over her brother catching sight of her running pell-mell from Mikoshiba's place. _He might think Mikoshiba kidnapped me and I'm escaping or something. _Which…might actually be preferable than Rin finding out about the actual situation. At least for her anyway. Not so good for Mikoshiba.

The boys were waiting for her in front area of the temple when she arrived. "Gou-chan!" Nagisa's voice was rudely loud for being inside a place of holiness. "You have crumbs all over you!"

She looked down at herself. She must have tried eating too fast. She swept at the crumbs scattered across her shirt front. "Sorry I'm late. I got a bit held up."

Rei peered at the crumbs like they were ancient hieroglyphics he was trying to decipher. "Is that…Were you eating toast? I thought you didn't like toast."

"I don't. Mikoshiba made me eat it."

"Mikoshiba…made you?" Makoto looked like he couldn't quite believe his ears and Nagisa had a strange mischievous smile on his face. Rei was giving her a look that said 'what exactly were you two doing after I left'.

Her face heated. "It-it's not like that! He just wanted me to eat something before I left, that's all." "Hmmm." Nagisa tapped a finger against the corner of his mouth. That idiotic smile was still on his face. "Captain Mikoshiba sure is a nice guy. Making sure Gou-chan eats and takes care of herself."

"It was just toast!"

"Just toast?" Rei seemed to be pondering this. "Perhaps toast is just the outset."

Gou glared at him. What was he trying to get at exactly? The outset to what? _Is he thinking something perverted?_

"Tomorrow I'll make you some toast, Rei-chan!" Nagisa declared out of the blue.

Rei spluttered. Now his face was reddening too. "T-that wasn't what I was implying at all!"

Gou's glare narrowed further. _He _was _thinking something perverted!_

Thankfully the host approached them to guide them around the temple so any further questions about Mikoshiba were deterred for the time being. The temple was lovely, with large stone pillars that rose on either side of long corridors that extended in either direction for quite a distance. There were round rooms adorned with the statues of old warriors and a shrine to the old gods the natives used to worship. They were shown the stance of praying people used to use in the old days and the correct order to light candles in reverence of the old gods. The temple was nice. Except for the history that surrounded it.

Gou had not forgotten what Mikoshiba had told her about the temple, and the guide was more than obligingly to provide the same information as he had. "A hundred people were beheaded on these steps as sacrifices to the old gods." She chuckled as if realizing something. "Of course these one hundred people were over a period of time! Not all of them were beheaded in one night. That would just be overzealous!"

"How unpleasant," muttered Rei. Beside him Makoto's eyebrow was ticking in a strange manner, face in a pained grimace.

Haru just looked bored until the host said one of the old gods had been a god of water and suddenly he became all attention. "What was the water god's name?" He interrupted the host while she was in the midst of talking about seasonal gods.

The woman paused, perhaps taken a bit aback by his sudden intensity. "Tewodros. It means two waters but-"

"What did he look like?"

"N-no one knows. He was a god."

"Water doesn't have a form anyway, Haru-chan!" Nagisa put in.

"Actually water does have a form," said Rei. "Gas, liquid, and solid. The amazing thing about water is-"

They never got to hear what the amazing thing about water was as Haru demanded, "What sort of swimming style did he use?"

Makoto pulled him away at that point before he became too exuberant and frightened their poor host even further.

It was just the five of them so when they were allowed to wander around the temple on their own it just made it feel that much bigger. It was almost a little lonely without Samezuka's swim team there with them. Then again it was only for today. After today all of their activities would be with the other swim team. For some reason that made Gou feel slightly better. Even if she had to hide certain things from her brother at least there would be other people around so the areas wouldn't feel so big.

"It's too bad Captain Mikoshiba isn't here." Gou looked up to find Nagisa and Rei near her. Nagisa was the one speaking. "I like spending time with him. He's fun."

She rolled her eyes. He loved talking about Mikoshiba so much. Even with Makoto's warning he still did it.

"Yes," Rei agreed. "He is a very generous and kind individual."

Rei too? _He's only saying that because of this morning. _Then again tutoring and helping Rei was really nice of Mikoshiba to do. Especially considering Rei being on a competing team. If the Samezuka members found out about Mikoshiba's tutoring of Rei would they protest? Or maybe they wouldn't even blink at it because that was just the sort of person their captain was.

"He let us do the joint practice with him too," Nagisa pointed out. "Most swim captains wouldn't have done that."

"Y-yes." Rei pushed his glasses further onto his face. Even if all of that that was true Rei didn't like being reminded of their first joint practice. That time when he had sunk like a rock and Haru had to save him.

Gou frowned at the both of them. "You certainly have taken quite a liking to him without even knowing him that well," she commented dryly.

Nagisa looked at her. "Don't you like him?"

Gou's mouth dropped. Such a point-blank straight-forward question. And he asked it with such innocence! "G-Guys aren't supposed to ask girls that kind of stuff!"

"Is that a yes?"

"No! It's not! I don't like him."

"But you married him."

"I don't know why I married him!" Gou pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling sharply. She felt like she had had this conversation so many times before. "I was drunk. It was a mistake! I don't remember any of it."

Nagisa was silent for a moment, absorbing that. "Well," he said after a moment, "why _don't _you like him then?"

"Huh?" Gou lowered her hand to blink at him.

"Why do you dislike him?" asked Nagisa and though he had phrased the question a little differently Gou still didn't fully understand what he was trying to get at.

"I…I don't dislike him." She crossed her arms loosely, glare darting to the temple walls. "I just…I don't really know him. It's awkward."

"Why?"

"You know why!"

"Because of your marriage?"

Gou's face was reddening. He always said such embarrassing things like it was no big deal. It was infuriating. "Yes."

Nagisa scratched his head. "I guess I don't understand," he admitted. "You were friends before that right? Why should you let something like that get in the way of it?"

"B-because!" How could she explain something like this to Nagisa? Guileless Nagisa, who looked at things with such a child like exuberance. She almost felt like he wouldn't be able to understand no matter how she tried to explain it.

Then again…how did she explain it to herself? She had unintentionally created an intimate situation between herself and Mikoshiba, and he the same. It was only natural that it made things a little uncomfortable. But then again…did Nagisa have a valid point? Were Mikoshiba and her friends? That night at the bar, before they had done their stupid mistake and made things so hectic, it had seemed like they were on their way to it. If they hadn't gotten stupidly married they likely would still be on the path to becoming that.

_So…why aren't we?_

_T_he marriage had surely thrown them a curve ball but that didn't necessarily mean that they couldn't move forward from it. Did it?

"Besides," Nagisa continued. "As I said before he's Rin-chan's captain. Based off that alone shouldn't we want to be friends with him?"

Gou made to answer but a loud sniff from Rei caused the words to die on her tongue. The taller teen's eyes were unusually bright. He clasped his hands under his chin. "Nagisa-kun you are so caring and wise!"

Nagisa laughed. "I only learned how to be so wise from you, Rei-chan! I'm normally terrible at this sort of stuff!"

"So modest too!"

Gou sighed and rolled her eyes, albeit fondly. Nagisa wasn't giving himself enough credit. And he was right. Even if things were a mess and she was stuck in marriage there was no reason to _not _be Mikoshiba's friend. If they became friends it may even make their situation easier and less awkward. That would be nice.

She sighed. "You're right," she said. "I should be his friend. Thanks, Nagisa."

He smiled at her.

* * *

Gou chewed on a nail. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. She couldn't help it though. She was nervous. She stared at the other person residing in the house. It may be a little creepy, the way she was staring, but Mikoshiba was luckily too immersed in his paper work at the kitchen table to notice her creepy stare.

He hadn't said much to her when she had first arrived home. Some pleasant greetings before he fell back to whatever he was he had been doing prior to her walking in. Gou wasn't satisfied. The conversation she had had with Nagisa at the temple revolved around her head like a merry-go-around she could not ignore. There was no reason Mikoshiba and her couldn't be friends. Bridging the gap between them and putting them at ease with each other would make things so much less troublesome. But…what was the best way to approach such a situation?

_If I were Nagisa…_If she were Nagisa she would have walked straight up to Mikoshiba and declared, "We're friends now, Miko-chan!" and that would have been it. But Gou would never be bold enough to take that route. She wasn't shy but she could never go that far.

And the others…well, they were pretty bad examples. Haru would stare blankly, not saying anything while sending out mind waves of friendship that would likely only confuse and creep Mikoshiba out. Rei would stutter over his words so much he would never be able to get them out or else he would start talking about the different dynamics of friendship and how he had memorized the theory of them. Makoto likely wouldn't say anything at first until the other brought it up, or he would say it quietly when the moment arose on its own. Makoto would wait his entire life for the opportunity to come of its own accord rather than create it himself.

_I can't wait that long_! Things had to happen _now_, otherwise there was no point.

It was a bit ironic how their positions had switched. Before their…mistake Mikoshiba had always approached her so energetically and often paid special mind to greet her specifically. He had always seemed so happy to see her no matter what. Now he was still friendly but more subdued. He had backed off tremendously.

_Am I actually missing the way he used to greet me? _She blinked at the sudden thought. Maybe. Maybe it had been nice seeing his face light up any time he caught sight of her. Maybe she hadn't noticed it back then but now that it was gone, she…kind of missed it. To think someone became so happy at just the mere presence of you was kind of nice.

_Funny. I never thought of it like that before._

Her eyes roved over her surrounding in a desperate attempt to find something to spark a conversation. A conversation about anything. Anything would do. Laundry, soccer, the weather, balancing her check book. Actually she didn't balance her check book. Balancing his _check book_. He seemed like the type of responsible individual who would do such a thing, record every little transaction in detail including the teller's name and the address of his business so he could look over them lately. Yes, Mikoshiba definitely seemed like that type of person.

_Oh my god I am not going to talk to him about his check book._

Her gaze crossed over her notebook lying on the living room table and her eyes widened. Of course! What better thing to talk about then that! Gou snatched up her notebook. She clutched it preciously to her chest like it were a photo album of special memories.

For a moment she sat there, silently freaking out. What if he got offended or brushed her off like Rin did? What if he disregarded her presence completely and she would be left standing there like an idiot?

She closed her eyes and steeled her nerves. It was just a conversation. That was all. They had had plenty of them in the past, there was no reason to get nervous about it now. Besides, hadn't he told her if she ever needed advice or help all she had to do was ask when they were walking back from the Iwatobi lodges?

Remembering that offer gave Gou new courage. She rose to her feet. The first few steps were hard but she forced herself forward. She walked over to where Mikoshiba sat at the kitchen table. She slammed her notebook down – maybe a little too hard – and Mikoshiba drew back at the suddenness of the action. He looked up at her in faint surprise.

Gou refused to falter. _I have come too far to falter. I must preserve._

"Tell me," she said. "Tell me everything you know."

* * *

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